India concentrates on bowling in the last game
The run-fest at Guhawati on Sunday was a reasonably successful example of the batting model that the Indian management had been emphasising over the previous year, but with one game The emphasis has shifted to bowling with only a few months till their 2022 T20 World Cup campaign gets underway. In the third dead rubber T20I match between India and South Africa, which was played in Indore on Tuesday, all eyes would be somewhat more concentrated on India’s bowling performance (October) because Jasprit Bumrah, the pace leader, has now been officially disqualified from the international tournament.
Two of India’s top three players were rested for the match: both Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Shreyas Iyer will enter the XI without a fight, but the open position may be utilised to immediately interview a second pacer. The toss between Mohammad Siraj and Umesh Yadav tomorrow will probably indicate who would take Mohammad Shami’s place in India’s World Cup reserves if Mohammad Shami is approved as Bumrah’s replacement.
Anrich Nortje’s ongoing inability to establish his bowling rhythm may have the visitors considering other options, at least in the hope of a consolation win, even if neither of the two teams should ideally be reading too much into the bowling numbers in a game when 450+ runs were scored. For the first time ever in India, they have surprisingly already given the series to the local side.
On the bright side, Quinton de Kock’s steady 69 and David Miller’s brilliant second T20I hundred in Guwahati helped South Africa rapidly turn around their batting fortunes from Trivandrum run-fest of a match. However, they are still worried about how their skipper Temba Bavuma and Rilee Rossouw are performing at the top of the order. The combination hasn’t started off well on this tour, and at least one of the two in-form benched hitters ahead of the World Cup might take their place.
India
Rishabh Pant or Suryakumar Yadav can be given a brief elevation to begin the game with Rohit Sharma. Iyer should finally get some playing time before the ODI portion of this white-ball series, and Siraj or Umesh will complete the starting XI.
Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Mohammad Siraj/Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant,
South Africa
To solve their batting problems, the visitors might switch up their top order. After sitting out the first two games, either of the in-form duo of Heinrich Klaasen or Reeza Hendricks might get a chance to play.
Temba Bavuma (C), Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje/Tabraiz Shamsi, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks/Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, and Anrich Nortje/Tabraiz Shamsi
Since the previous World Cup, this work has been ongoing, and we have made a conscious effort to improve our ability to score huge runs when batting first. Every opportunity we’ve got, we’ve seized. We might learn a lot from the previous World Cup.
