India has to make a choice between the ultra-cool aggression of Abhishek Sharma and the effortless flamboyance of Yashasvi Jaiswal in third T20 International against Zimbabwe at Harare on Wednesday. This is because they will be changing their line-up to accommodate players who won the World Cup.
Jaiswal’s comeback, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube have made India a formidable side for the most crucial game of this series all of whom were part of last month’s winning squad. The visitors would hope to build on after leveling their series with a 100-run victory in the second match.
As such, he did enough to live up to his reputation as a left-handed opener when, in just his second game, he scored a century off 46 balls. Therefore, Parami News says he looked the part as an opening batman too.
On account that first-choice T20 Team’s reserve opener is Jaiswal with impressive strike rate plus 161 out of seventeen T20I matches including century and four half-centuries; it will not be easy for him to claim Gill’s opening slot.
There are instances where batters get dropped after historic innings though rare one.
These include following Manoj Tiwary’s maiden ODI ton vs West Indies in 2011 and Karun Nair’s triple hundred during England test match of 2016.
But captain Gill doesn’t want that to happen with his best friend since U-14 days and someone who used his own willow’s first-ever international century courtesy of Shubman’s gift.
Therefore it could either be another southpaw batting first. Ruturaj Gaikwad will probably bat at number four while fifth will be Sanju Samson from Rajasthan Royals who bats third there.
About alterations regarding starting eleven, Jaiswaal might take over B Sai Sudharsan space who was select only for first two games.
Samson will replace Dhruv Jurel who had good outing behind the stumps.
The lone player of T20 World Cup playing XI, Dube, is likely to come in for Riyan Parag. The dangerous batsman could present an even greater threat to Zimbabwean spinners in the last ten overs.
Zimbabwe’s batting has been a big letdown with scores of 115 while batting first and 134 in the second essay when chasing 235.
At other times, it seemed impossible that Ravi Bishnoi (6/24 from 8 overs) and Washington Sundar (3/39 in 8 overs) can play on Harare Sports Club pitch where there is slightly more bounce for spinners.
Bishnoi has kept the home captain Sikandar Raza quiet by bowling his usual quota of about twenty to twenty-two googlies out of every twenty-four balls. Thus far, no Indian bowler has allowed any other batsman to look good enough apart from him.
Hence, young visitors learned a lesson from thirteen-runs upset defeat in Game One and they performed admirably during second game where first innings advantage does not require five specialist bowlers.
After two subpar matches, captain Gill will need a strong outcome and he is simply too gift to lose thrice. This could be worrisome for them because there isn’t even one bowler in the team that bowls with sheer pace.
To sum it up, it may well be just another one-sided game.
Teams (from):
India: Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Khaleel Ahmed, Tushar Deshpande.
Zimbabwe: Sikandar Raza (captain), Faraz Akram, Brian Bennett, Johnathan Campbell, Tendai Chatara Luke Jongwe Innocent Kaia Clive Madande Wessly Madhevere Tadiwanashe Marumani Wellington Masakadza Brandon Mavuta Blessing Muzarabani Dion Myers Antum Naqvi Richard Ngarava Milton Shumba
