3 Challenges Team India Will Face in T20 World Cup 2014
1) The good old ghost of death bowling
India’s fast bowling attack is highly inexperienced. Only 1 of their 4 fast bowlers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) has played a T20 international. In the recent past, India’s fast bowling, and death bowling in particular, has been abysmal to say the least. Irrespective of the playing conditions, India’s bowlers have struggled to stop/reduce the run-flow in the last 10-12 overs of the match, in ODIs. If given a choice, India’s captain ,Mahendra Singh Dhoni, will prefer a spinner over any fast bowler in the squad, 9 out of 10 times. And, considering the sub-continent conditions, which favor spin bowling, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, will be keen to have one of his spinners bowling in the death overs. Most likely, it will be Ravindra Jadeja.
It will be interesting to see what combination India decides to go with.
3 spinners, 2 fast bowlers
2 spinners, 3 fast bowlers
2 spinners, 2 fast bowlers and Stuart Binny
2) The Opening Dilemma
In the 2 warm-up matches that India have played, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma opened the innings. After having a brilliant start to their partnership in the Champion Trophy 2013, Dhawan and Rohit have not performed up to the mark.
Their ordinary run in the past couple of matches could haunt India. And, once again, the responsibility of scoring the runs may come on Virat Kohli’s shoulders, which is not very good news for Team India.
3) To Yuvraj or Not To Yuvraj
Yuvraj Singh is making a comeback, but nothing apart from his experience has looked promising, so far. He is struggling against anything that’s moving off the surface and also against anything that is pitched short.
Yuvraj Singh has always been a match winner, and specially in the T20 format. But, considering his current batting form, India might have to drop Yuvraj if he fails in the match against Pakistan.
Interestingly, he didn’t bowl in the warm-up matches, and this makes his selection case, even more weaker.
