The Indian bowling lineup, according to former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, appears well settled but he feels that the inclusion of left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav could bring “some extra bit of wicket-taking flair” as Caribbean pitches are expected to begin turning in the latter stages of the T20 World Cup Super 8.
India so far have gone with a combination of three fast bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh along with two spinners in Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in their starting eleven.
When asked whether Kuldeep would come into the side if there is turn on offer, Fleming said during an ‘ESPNCricinfo Timeout show’, “I would think maybe Kuldeep would come in to provide that extra bit of wicket taking flair if the wickets do provide the turn as they get a little bit more used and you get closer to the end of the tournament.”
According to PTI, Fleming also stressed adaptability while saying “But they’ve still got that opportunity now to do both which is good and horses for courses, you can’t be so set in one way of playing that you miss the opportunities to take advantage of conditions.”
India topped Group A which means they will face Afghanistan at Barbados on Thursday in their first match of this phase’s competition.
Jadeja is incredibly dangerous
The selection by India of two left arm spin all-rounders Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja has been under discussion. While Axar has been among wickets, Jadeja has not really made any significant impact with only bowling three overs across three matches. To Stephen Fleming who coached Chennai Super Kings for many years at IPL level it makes no difference having two players with similar skills on your field.
Fleming points out that such situations were similar when CSK had Mitchell Santner playing alongside Jadeja. It might be difficult sometimes to give them the 8 overs each due to their similar skill sets. Nevertheless, both Jadeja and Axar with slightly different conditions for bowling can be very useful for the team as Jadeja is incredibility dangerous and Axar gives another type of attack.
“There are some nuances around both of them though but again… and I hate that idea left-handers can’t bowl to left hand batters so we can debunk that myth and hopefully both those players will play.”
India had a difficult choice on their hands when it came to who they should select in their team, this meant talented players like Yashasvi Jaiswal were not included because Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli would be opening with Rishabh Pant batting at three. Fleming thinks India has been smart in how it has gone about picking its squad; keeping in mind the possibility of spin-friendly conditions in the West Indies.
“This is a team that in some ways is picked for the finals in my view, it’s a team that has spinners that can dominate, it has players that can dominate spin and we’ve seen spin in the West Indies play quite a big part, not so much in New York.
“So I think what they have done now is got job done and they have got quite smartly looking at it this is how we want to play our key games now going into hopefully semi-finals and final.
“…a team has been chosen by them that they believe might be playing on a turning track, this will give us our best chance at the top and has good balance and we’ve seen that kind of thing in fits and starts, it’s simply been weather but I think they’re fine now.”
