Skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma’s rejigged philosophy of dropping anchor rather than going for big strokes will be tested by a quality South African side that seems ready to find chinks in the Indian armour during their opening Super Eight match of the T20 World Cup here on Sunday.
The Proteas team boasts of a formidable bowling line-up comprising Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj and Aiden Markram and the defending champions will be mindful of the challenge.
The two teams would be playing for the sixth time in the last two months and it remains to be seen for which side the familiarity works better on Sunday night.
India have not exactly been asked probing questions at the group league stage but the home favourites are well aware that their batting has left a lot to be desired.
Save for opener Ishan Kishan (two fifties and Strike Rate of 202), the other three batters in the top four haven’t exactly set the stage on fire till now.
Abhishek Sharma is literally out of runs with three ducks and as much as Suryakumar and Tilak justify playing an anchor role, the Mumbai Indians colleagues have looked far from smooth on tracks where the ball is gripping.
India’s run-scoring has needed brute power that Hardik Pandya (Strike Rate of 155) and Shivam Dube (Strike Rate of 178) are providing at the back-end.
With Abhishek falling to off-spinners twice in a row, it will be interesting to see whether skipper Markram decides to bowl off-breaks in the Powerplay.
While Abhishek’s form remains a concern, Tilak’s scratchy batting throughout the first leg cannot be brushed under the carpet.
Against Pakistan, he scored 25 off 24 balls while against Namibia it was 25 off 21 and versus Netherland, it was a painstaking 31 off 27 balls.
His strike rate in the tournament is just above 120, which is significantly less than his career average of 141.
Save his match-winning 84 not out off 49 balls against a US attack, which lost two of its bowlers to hamstring strain, Suryakumar hasn’t displayed a lot of smoothness in his batting either against Pakistan or Netherlands.
His tournament strike rate of 136 plus is way below his career strike rate of 163 plus.
An Indian team that plays with eight batters and believes in going all out irrespective of opposition and surface, cannot afford to have two batters who are not able to score freely on tacky surfaces.
In tournaments like the T20 World Cup, discretion isn’t always the better part of valour.
The overall quality of this team is undeniable which is the reason that good teams score 200 on their good days and this Indian team conjures near 200 on its average days.
But what makes India a scary proposition and still a runaway favourite is the bowling attack with Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy bowling those eight out of 20 overs.
In the initial round, none of the four teams, including a second-rate Pakistan side, could negotiate the duo.
Chakravarthy, with nine wickets in four games, has bowled at a stunning economy rate of 5.16 and Bumrah, miserly as ever in his three games, has gone for only six runs per over.
But against an in-form batting line-up, which has freaks like Quinton de Kock, Markram, Dewald Brevis, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickleton, David Miller and Marco Jansen in its top seven, the entire bowling unit will need to come good.
The South Africa match will be an indicator of how this Indian team’s campaign at the business end of the tournament will pan out.
As far as changes are concerned, India are expected to play Kuldeep Yadav in place of Arshdeep Singh, and Axar Patel will be back after a one match rest to replace Washington Sundar.
As far as South Africa is concerned, Jansen, Ngidi and Maharaj, all of whom were rested against the UAE, will be making a comeback.
Squads:
India: Suyakumar Yadav (captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Sanju Samson (wk), Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh.
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock (wk), Ryan Rickleton, Dewald Brevis, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Corbin Bosch, Anrich Nortje, Kwena Maphaka, George Linde, Jason Smith.
Match Starts: 7 pm.
Super 8s: Tilak and Surya’s guarded batting approach to face its first real test vs South Africa
