Colombo: Lot will be at stake when India and Australia clash in their first Super Eight match of the ICC T20 World Cup. India who won te inaugural edition had failed miserably in next two editions. They were not able too go past the Super Eights and will be looking to change that.
Coming into today’s match, both India and Australia will feel confident about their chances. Both teams qualified in the last eight on the back of some good performance and it is going hard fought contest provided that the rain does not play a part.
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Indian Squad:
MS Dhoni (c), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Ashok Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan.
Australian Squad:
George Bailey (c), Dan Christian, Pat Cummins, David Warner, Shane Watson, Cameron White, Xavier Doherty, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hogg, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade.
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Indian team will most probably field five bowlers going by the way their bowlers have been performing. The ploy worked brilliantly for the Indians in the match against England and captain MS Dhoni has said that this may be the way to go forward.
Indian bowling has been their weak point and they will have to compensate it with playing an extra bowler. Playing five bowlers will mean that India will have to drop one of their top batsmen. Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh are the two option that comes to the mind as both players have not made a mark with the bat so far in the tournament.
Yuvraj might get an edge keeping in mind how effective his left-arm spin proved against Afghanistan. Other than these two, Dhoni will be happy the way his other batsmen are batting. Both Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma announced their arrival in the game against England.
R Ashwin will certainly make a comeback into the side and he is most likely to join Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla in the spin bowling department. Irfan Pathan has been a consistent wicket taker so he will be in the team and L Balaji might get a nod over experienced Zaheer Khan because of Zaheer’s poor form.
Australia might go with the same team combination as they were very convincing in both their league matches. The key player for them will be Shane Watson, he played a pivotal role in both Australian victories and is in menacing form. His partner David warner is not that far behind. He played a dangerous innings against West Indies and he will be confident against Indians, especially by the way he treated Indian bowlers in the Australian summer.
With Michael Hussey batting at number three, Australians are top heavy and their untested middle order might be a cause of worry for the team management. No batsmen apart from the top three have got a chance to bat so far in this tournament and things can get difficult for them if India manages to break through the top order.
Australian bowlers have already announced that they will test Indian batsmen with a lot of short balls and they do have the artillery to follow the plan. The likes of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc can bowl at rapid pace and all-rounders like Watson and Christian are also very effective. The wily Brad Hogg will lead the spin bowling department,
Hogg can deceive batsmen with his craft but almost all the Indian batsmen played him well in IPL-5.
The weather prediction is not good as Colombo has been witnessing some heavy runs. The chances are for thunder showers and every cricket fan will be crossing their fingers to keep the rain gods away from what is going to be a very exciting contest.
By Indian Sports News Network