Published: Mar 22, 2014, 03:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 22, 2014, 05:56 PM (IST)
By Kushan Sarkar
Mirpur: Mar 22, 2014
Their sagging morale lifted after a thumping win over Pakistan, Indian spinners will now have to brace up for the ever-dangerous Chris Gayle when the team squares off against defending champion West Indies in its second match of the ICC World T20 2014 Championships.
A victory against Pakistan was just the kind of shot in the arm that was required before facing a team that has world’s most devastating T20 batsman in Gayle.
“If we play to our full potential, we can be a real destructive force,” said the skipper, who leads players like the explosive batsman Chris Gayle and star spinner Sunil Narine. We’ve got a lot of experienced players who play Twenty20 cricket all over the world, like Gayle, Narine and Dwayne Bravo. We have a great balance in the squad,” said West Indies skipper Darren Sammy who was speaking to AFP.
“We have a general idea of the Indians because guys have been in the same dressing room as them during the IPL. Anyway in this age, there is footage to be seen everywhere.You can watch a player’s match and come up with a successful formula to stop him,” added Sammy about the game-plan for the Indians.
While a rampaging Gayle can take away the game at any point of time with his blazing bat, the Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja will definitely pose a few problems for the ‘Jamaican Marauder’.
Gayle has minimum footwork as he believes in stand and hit technique. With Ashwin successfully employing a round the wicket technique to bottle up batsman and Mishra inviting him to come out by flighting his deliveries, it will be a challenge for Gayle to devise a counter strategy.
While spinners will hold the key, Dhoni would also expect that Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami don’t bowl length balls to Gayle as it has a chance of consistently landing in the stands.
However, Indian bowlers will also have to deal with an attacking batsman like Dwayne Smith, who has the ability to hit over the in-field consistently during Powerplay overs.
Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels are also capable enough to destroy any bowling attack on their day.
While Samuels might take some time to settle down, he can effortlessly shift gears as he had shown some 18 months ago during the last edition’s final at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The Indian batsmen had an easy day in office against Pakistan with a smaller target to chase. But both Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma would also do well to get a big score under their belt. The two openers got good starts but failed to convert them into big scores.
Therefore one can expect Yuvraj Singh to play the whole tournament unless something goes horribly wrong. It also doesn’t make sense to select a senior like him and not play him.
It will be interesting as to how Indians will counter Sunil Narine. But it will probably be ‘attack is best defence’ policy. It was Dhawan who gave Ajmal the charge hitting three boundaries in one over and Mohammed Hafeez had to take him out of the attack.
Ravi Rampaul, Krishmar Santomie, Bravo and Narine make up for a good line up and one can expect an engaging contest between bat and ball.
“The good thing in our team is that we don’t have to rely on any one person. We have at least five or six potential match-winners. But everyone has to contribute. You may have a brilliant team, but it takes a total team effort to win,” said Sammy who believes his side will not make the mistake of under-estimating India.
“It is not going to be easy to win the tournament again. We have to focus on each team. But tomorrow it is all about India and our energies are focused on them,” signed off Sammy.
Squads:
India
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron.
West Indies
Darren Sammy (c), Samuel Badree, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Krishmar Santokie, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith.
Match starts 7pm IST.
