Ahmedabad, February 17 A formidable India will be hoping that Abhishek Sharma returns to his aggressive style, and the other batters step up against spin, when the team takes the field for its final T20 World Cup league match against the Netherlands here on Wednesday.
Having established himself as one of the most dangerous batters in the game over the last 18 months, Abhishek has yet to perform well in the ICC event at home.
After a duck in the opening match, a stomach infection forced him out of the game against Namibia. He returned for the high-stakes match against Pakistan but failed to score in the second match as well.
However, with Ishan Kishan showing excellent form, Abhishek's lack of runs have not affected the team's chances.
It's fair to say that Abhishek's aggressive play has resulted in multiple wins for India, and it's only a matter of time before he makes the bowlers look ordinary again.
However, the fact that he has had four ducks in his last six innings suggests that he may need to review his strategy during the powerplay.
Given his intimidating record, it's clear that teams have spent extra time preparing to counter India's opening batsman.
Abhishek himself admits that he doesn't have the wide range of shots possessed by others in the team, and he relies on using crease and his free-flowing bat swing to intimidate the opposition.
He likes to target the deep cover boundary during the powerplay, and teams have been smart to deploy a fielder in that area, as seen in the match against the USA.
Pakistan also set a similar field for him on Sunday, including a deep mid-wicket, mindful that he doesn't attempt shots behind the wicket often.
With India already through to the next stage of the tournament, the match against the Netherlands presents an ideal opportunity for him to get back among the runs.
India managed to defeat Pakistan convincingly, thanks to Kishan's excellent performance and the bowlers. However, the batters did not show the same conviction as Kishan in the second game.
After Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus troubled the Indian batters with his variations in pace and behind the stumps, another unorthodox spinner, Usman Tariq, kept them quiet in the match against Pakistan.
Even Saim Ayub was effective against the Indians.
While the Netherlands attack is good, their spinners are not on par with the Indian spinners.
On the bowling front, India have the option to rest a few bowlers before the Super 8s, including pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
After choosing Kuldeep Yadav over Arshdeep Singh as the extra spin option in Colombo, the team management is expected to go back to the two specialist pacers combination.
If Bumrah is rested, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep are expected to start. The two likely spinners will be Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel.
The Netherlands will need drastic improvement in their batting and bowling to compete with the defending champions. They lost heavily to USA in their previous game after a convincing win over Namibia.
Ahmedabad has produced the highest score of all the games played in India so far – 213/4 that South Africa scored in their opener against Canada – but in the last two games, teams batting first have not managed to cross the 200-run mark.
Even with the Indian involvement, it would be a challenge to pack the world's largest cricket stadium on a pleasant Wednesday evening.
Teams:
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India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.
Netherlands: Scott Edwards (c), Colin Ackermann, Noah Croes, Bas de Leede, Aryan Dutt, Fred Klaassen, Kyle Klein, Michael Levitt, Zach Lion-Cachet, Max O'Dowd, Logan van Beek, Timm van der Gugten, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren, Saqib Zulfiqar.
