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Champions Trophy: Kohli and Azam hope to seize the occasion
Virat Kohli and Babar Azam look to channel their big match temperament as teams prepare for the Sunday special
Dubai: Shaheen Shah Afridi mingled freely with the fans. Haris Rauf gave selfie time to the Indian media. Pakistan’s strenuous training session was over, and their pacemen had got over the disappointment of a poor start in the competition they are hosting. In another corner of the ICC academy, Babar Azam was a study in contrast. Immersed in the batting nets, 36 hours before the big match.
It’s no longer hard to read his mental battle. Pakistan’s primary batter, former captain; King, a term coined by publicists to link his rise with the star batter from across the border, had work to do.
His batting averages have dropped. More alarmingly, his strike rate has nosedived, particularly against spin. Azam is coming into a must-win tie against India after a sluggish 90-ball 64 against New Zealand, which was largely responsible for a meek run chase that ended in a 60-run loss. He faced spin first, trying to summon all the attacking options he has in his game.
A day later, and the day before Super Sunday, Virat Kohli checks in for practice unannounced with the support staff under the hot Dubai sun, 90 minutes before scheduled time at the same ground.
He takes some light throwdowns before getting into action mode against spin. India’s leading spinners keep the powder dry for match day. So, he makes do with a battery of spinners from the academy. Many of them are from the UAE, and not all of them are of the same quality. But it’s an assortment of spinners – left-arm orthodox, unorthodox, leg-spinners – helping Kohli prepare against familiar rivals.
Like Azam, Kohli’s sole focus is on playing spin better. In the past five years, Kohli has been dismissed frequently against left-arm orthodox and leg-spinners. His averages against them have come down too. On Dubai’s dry deck, worn out by constant league cricket, tackling spin in the middle overs is going to be the key.
“In the last match, the dew didn’t come that much. When the dew doesn’t come under lights, it is not easy to bat on slow wickets. It’s not easy to rotate the strike. I think, whatever matches we play here, the key will be that whichever team rotates well in the middle overs – between the 11th and 40th overs – has a better chance of winning,” Shubman Gill, the India vice-captain, said.
Pakistan haven’t picked a conventional leg-spinner. Their left-arm spin option Khushdil Shah only comes with a part-time reputation. But they do possess Abrar Ahmed’s right-arm everything. The mystery spinner will pose a challenge for India’s right-hand heavy batting core, not just Kohli.
India come with plenty of spin weapons to exploit the conditions. In the euphoria of the comfortable win against Bangladesh, India wouldn’t have overlooked that their spinners could not achieve a single breakthrough in the middle overs. The idea behind having five spin options in the squad, three all-rounders as Rohit Sharma says, was to be able to get more wickets in the middle and render the death overs less important.
Will Chakravarthy play?
One tweak India may want to make in their playing eleven is to bring in mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. His late inclusion in the squad could be useful in this match. Pakistan batters, because they don’t play IPL, have only faced him once, in the 2021 T20 World Cup. In any case, Chakravarthy is a far improved bowler since then. And there is no such thing as a set plan or retaining a winning combination for Rohit.
“I think it’s important that whatever we feel is comfortable doing against certain opposition. Because all oppositions are different. So, it works like that with me. You look at the opposition, what they are comfortable doing as well,” Rohit said before the Bangladesh tie.
If Chakravarthy comes in, it would be at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav. It’s unlikely that India will deviate from their bat-deep strategy.
In Saturday’s training session, Arshdeep Singh had a long bowl, primarily to provide batters valuable practice against Afridi’s left-arm pace. Harshit Rana gave his bowling arm a breather and had a long batting session, indicating that the young pacer is seen as the chosen new-ball partner to Mohammed Shami.
As for Pakistan, they want to play to their strengths. “We have selected a team based on our beliefs. We will back this team. Our fast-bowling options are the best. These are the match winners,” Pakistan head coach Aaqib Javed said. “Shaheen, Naseem and Haris remind me of the 90s.”
When Pakistani pacemen were a feared lot and troubled India. Javed was among them. His hat-trick in the 1991 Wills Trophy final in Sharjah is part of India-Pakistan cricket folklore. He wants his team to channel that spirit against India.
India though have travelled a long way from the middling 1990s. “We play every match to win and this is no different for us,” said Gill.
