Speaking about India-Pakistan T20 World Cup game on Sunday, the former Indian cricketer N.S. Sidhu stated that he would have had Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal as his opening pair, but he could understand where Virat Kohli is coming from in making this batting order.
“If not Dube and Axar wouldn’t get a chance to play, so they have come up with this combination for a right mixture where Axar is at number eight especially in this wicket where bowlers have an advantage,” said Sidhu.
“If it had been the tournament opener in West Indies then we would have seen Rohit and Yashasvi starting off there you don’t need a sixth or seventh bowler.
“You are not going to expect 200 runs on this wicket, 130 or 140 runs will be good enough and it will work.”
Sidhu believes that the term “game-changer” should only apply to players in T20 cricket who are capable of scoring two or more runs per ball.
The low-scoring games played during the ongoing T20 World Cup have made strike rates controversial ever since last month’s Indian Premier League.
“Look at game changers, those guys are going to score two runs for one ball,” Sidhu stated in Star Sports Press Room.
“Strike rates talking about 1.5, 1.7 but someone scoring at 2.5 runs per ball three runs per ball. There are some people who in the end will come and score in 10 balls, a 35. Now that is the quality,” he stated.
“That’s a game changer; that’s 35 in ten balls if two people do something like supporting another person like Virat Kohli, make no mistake about it.” He added
According to Sidhu, Shivam Dube and Axar Patel benefit from being potential game-changers amongst current Indian players.
“….you look at the IPL and you look at the T20 format, those who can actually score a 2.5 per ball or above two per ball are the real game changers. There are so many of them.
“There is Ravindra Jadeja, there is Dube, and even Axar also scores the runs in the same pace. Why is (MS) Dhoni such a great finisher, because his strike rate is 2.5, his strike rate at times is 4 per ball.
“That’s what changes games in cricket for T-20s completely different skills for hitting sixes.”
