Tweaking a spin-heavy combination and being more guarded in powerplay could be the way forward for India in Pune
PUNE: Mohammed Shami’s international comeback in the last match, the availability of middle-order batter Rinku Singh and conditions at Gahunje stadium will play a role as India look to play their best playing XI to seal the T20 series against England.
Suryakumar Yadav‘s team, leading 2-1, play Jos Buttler’s men in the fourth match at Gahunje stadium on Friday night. The hosts had a chance to clinch the series in Rajkot but fumbled in a chase of 172 runs – widely viewed as a sub-par target – on Tuesday.
The team had to rest left arm pacer Arshdeep Singh in that contest to make way for Shami. For, they stuck to the idea of playing four spinners – left-armer Axar Patel, offie Washington Sundar and leggies Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi. However, the pitch for this match is not doctored to assist spinners like it was for the October’s Test against New Zealand. Hence, not resting Shami, but bringing in Arshdeep and Rinku in place of Sundar/Bishnoi and Dhruv Jurel respectively may make sense.
Rinku missed the second and third games due to lower back spasms, but he was available for selection when Team India practised on Thursday evening. England chose not to train.
Regardless of India’s spin combination, the faceoff between tweakers from the hosts and England leggie Adil Rashid will be a nice sub-plot to the contest.
Bishnoi has leaked 95 runs in 12 overs for one wicket in the series. He was taken to the cleaners in the last match with two fours and five sixes. And England batters are perfectly capable of repeating the act. Though the pitch is expected to offer some assistance to the bowlers, it is unlikely to play tricks. Still, India cannot take visiting pacers – led by Jofra Archer – lightly.
England had managed to choke India and stop them from hitting boundaries for 43 balls in the middle overs in the last match. And coach Gautam Gambhir may have taken serious note of that.
Hardik Pandya has enjoyed the status of being one of the most valued members of the team since he offers a rare all-round fare – aggressive batting and pace bowling. But his ability to maintain strike rate, especially if he comes into bat before the 10th over has come under the scanner.
How to use your resources optimally is a bigger task for captains in T20 than in other forms of the game. Jurel, playing as a specialist batter, came in quite late in the last game. Axar was under bowled and Washington Sundar’s one over (15 runs) was quite costly.
England can take credit for handing the reigning T20 World Champions a rare defeat – only their third in the last 31 games. And their aggressive brand of cricket means they are perfectly capable of taking the series to the decider in Mumbai on Sunday. But since the format offers their batters a license to kill, they can also shoot themselves in the foot.
The retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from T20Is, has opened the big door for Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma to establish themselves at the top of the order. And if they survive the initial spell and boundary-hitting temptation in the powerplay, they can make a big impact.
