Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
T20 WC: 'If pitch has something to offer, 5. If it’s flat, he would want 6 bowlers'- Agarkar on India's bowling attack
Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar spoke about possible bowling combinations that Virat Kohli-led Team India could go with in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Team India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan on Sunday, October 24. Before that, India are to play two warm-up games, one of which was played on Monday; India won the game by 7 wickets against England. They will play Australia next on Wednesday before their first official match. While Virat Kohli would look the right balance, former India cricketer Ajit Agarkar has attempted to do the same in his analysis.
Former pacer Agarkar, while speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, spoke about the bowling lineup Team India will go ahead with. He commented that a lot would on depend on whether Hardik Pandya is able to bowl and that Ravindra Jadeja is an automatic selection because of his improved batting.
"Relatively certain that Virat Kohli would like six bowling options. If the pitch has something to offer, then you can perhaps take a chance with five bowlers, but if it’s a flat pitch, he would ideally want to go in with six bowlers with three seamers and they have lots of spin options.
“And Jadeja is an all-rounder whose batting has come out in leaps and bounds. So, you can treat him as one of the top-order batsmen. So, my six options – if Hadik Pandya is not to bowl - would be Bumrah, Shami, Shardul, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar,” explained Agarkar.
Out of all the bowlers mentioned by Agarkar, not all of them got match time against England in Dubai. Chakaravarthy, Jadeja and Thakur did not feature, while others had a decent outing. Bumrah finished with figures of 1-26 in his 4 overs, while Shami was the pick of the bowlers with a three-wicket haul. Chahar bagged a wicket but was expensive. On the other hand, Ashwin remained wicketless but was very economical.
It will be interesting to see what line-up Kohli eventually goes with against Pakistan.
