India, with the last of their group matches against Canada on Saturday, will be worried by star batsman Virat Kohli’s poor run of scores and hope that it stays dry in this city while other parts of Florida are flooded.
India have won their three games and are progressing to the next stage, which will take place entirely in West Indies.
When he came into the T20 World Cup after setting IPL on fire by hitting more than 700 runs at a strike rate of over 150 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, one would have expected him to continue his fine form. His performance thus far has provided an interesting subplot to game against tournament debutants Canada that is otherwise inconsequential.
But three matches later, and Kohli has five runs at average of 1.66, including ‘Golden Duck’ against USA.
Three tournaments ago, there was some justification for hoping that he will continue firing in this ICC showcase – may be his last shot at earning an India-ICC world cup at last after thirteen years.
At least five runs at an average of 1.66 in three matches with “Golden Duck” as one score versus USA show how bad things have been for Kohli so far; however, I still think that was expected too early for such young player with high expectations who made his maiden appearance only two months ago.
Maybe a distance of approximately 1850km from New York to Florida can bring change in fortunes for Kohli who must still be thinking about these below par shows here.
The pitch at Broward County Stadium may not be as spiteful as the one found in New York where the wicket’s uneven bounce and slow outfield were bigger talking points than the actual cricket being played thereon.
That lean run hasn’t really affected the team’s fortunes thereby alleviating some pressure off him
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj.
Canada: Saad Bin Zafar (C), Aaron Johnson,Dilon Heyliger , Dilpreet Bajwa , Rishiv Joshi Jeremy Gordon Junaid Siddiqui Kaleem Sana Kanwarpal Tathgur(wk) Navneet Dhaliwal Nicholas Kirton Pargat Singh Ravinderpal Singh Rayyankhan Pathan Shreyas Movva(wk).
