In the first two matches, India has had different top-orders, with only Rohit Sharma being the constant. Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli have played a match each and it remains to be seen which set of three batters takes to the field on Wednesday.
Memories are short. More so in Indian justice. In under two months since the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup ended, India has played 10 T20Is (including a flop) in medication for the summer’s T20 World Cup in the United States of America and the Caribbean. But with a gargantuan IPL season ahead of us, one wonders how important of the action in the bilateral contests will be flashed back and how important forgotten.
Nevertheless, these internationals would have helped the think- tank led by Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma try out different players, identify labor force for specific places and take way towards zeroing in on a winning combination ahead of the marquee competition. Wednesday’s final T20I of the three- match series between India and Afghanistan at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium will be the last similar exercise.
It helps that unlike football, justice doesn’t involve as numerous coetaneous movements, and players are frequently rotated without disturbing the overall balance. One similar devisee has been southpaw Shivam Dube, who has scored successive unbeaten half- centuries, both of them match- winning and at a strike- rate in excess of 150.
So much so, that an enthusiastic scribe indeed asked Afghanistan trainer Jonathan Trott in the pre-match briefing if Dube will convert the injured Hardik Pandya’s place. Trott dead- batted the question and said that it wasn’t his problem. Dravid and Rohit wouldn’t mind moreover, for the very purpose of similar matches is to shore up the platoon’s reserves.
In the first two matches against Afghanistan, India has had different top- orders, with only Rohit being the constant. Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli have played a match each and it remains to be seen which set of three batters takes to the field in the Garden City.
The bowling line- up wears a settled look, with Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar turning out both in Mohali and Indore. Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Yadav, who have warmed the benches, will hope for a look- heft, so will wicket- keeper club Sanju Samson in place of Jitesh Sharma.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has been oppressively hampered by the absence of the talismanic incentive Rashid Khan. Its fur has been middling, with nearly every batter being among the runs but the bunch not firing in accord.
But the nation, as it showed in the World Cup, is no longer just a banana skin, but an accomplished side able of beating the best. However, the suckers will have their evening’s worth, If it can serve a memorial against India. Know More Latest Cricket News…
India: Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar.
Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (Capt.), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ikram Alikhil, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad and Gulbadin Naib.
