Indian cricketers were given a real run for their money, or that's what it at-least seemed like in last night's encounter with Hong Kong.
First about India's batting:- Indian batsmen never got going. This, one would believe is a full strength side in the batting department. Virat Kohli has been rested, but then India is not just Virat Kohli. 11 players or rather 5-7 top order batsmen make your batting line up. In IndvHK(India vs Hong Kong), either all the batsmen were in the mindset of slowly accumulating runs, getting match practise OR pitch was not conducive to batting when India batted. Astonishingly the same pitch became impeccable for stroke play when Hong Kong batsmen like Anshuman Rath etc were batting.
Indians could not accelerate. One would never really get to know the reason why Indians could not switch gears & slog when less than 50 runs were scored in the last 10 overs. Were the Hong Kong bowlers so disciplined? We are talking about Dinesh Karthik, Ambathi Rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan, M.S.Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav. These batsmen were batting in the middle & final stages. These same batsmen were smoking boundaries at will in the IPL 4 months ago... It looks weird that none of them could accelerate & the inexperienced Hong Kong batsmen skimmed the Indian bowling with ease, on the same pitch.
India's bowling:- We had Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal. These bowlers keep international hard hitters tied down & quiet in IPL. But they were made to look absolutely stingless & ordinary. It was a pathetic display in front of batsmen with no experience of facing quality attack, who were batting under pressure of chasing almost 300 against India, the Cricketing Giants, a side that's been amongst the top 3 cricket playing sides in the world since quite a while.
Even the tail end Hong Kong batsmen smoked sixes. As India won the match only by 26 runs, with just a little bit of luck Hong Kong could have easily caused the biggest upset of the Asia Cup 2018 tournament.
Only inclusion of Jaspreet Bumrah will be the discipline enforcing factor in today's India vs Pakistan match. Either Ravinder Jadeja or Hardik Pandya could get a look in depending on the contemporary match/pitch scenario. India's batting line will mostly be the same as yesterday.
One big factor, probably the most decisive & impactful factor would be the disciplined, left arm pace & swing bowling attack of the Pakistanis in IndvsPak game. Couple it with Pakistanis treating UAE, Dubai, Sharjah as their home grounds, the crowd support. The mental & physical exhaustion due to back to back matches of Indian players.
It will be a real test of stamina, physical endurance, mental strength of the team & leadership skills of Rohit Sharma to motivate his team & get the optimal performance out from every individual to compete fiercely & win this match...
First about India's batting:- Indian batsmen never got going. This, one would believe is a full strength side in the batting department. Virat Kohli has been rested, but then India is not just Virat Kohli. 11 players or rather 5-7 top order batsmen make your batting line up. In IndvHK(India vs Hong Kong), either all the batsmen were in the mindset of slowly accumulating runs, getting match practise OR pitch was not conducive to batting when India batted. Astonishingly the same pitch became impeccable for stroke play when Hong Kong batsmen like Anshuman Rath etc were batting.
Indians could not accelerate. One would never really get to know the reason why Indians could not switch gears & slog when less than 50 runs were scored in the last 10 overs. Were the Hong Kong bowlers so disciplined? We are talking about Dinesh Karthik, Ambathi Rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan, M.S.Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav. These batsmen were batting in the middle & final stages. These same batsmen were smoking boundaries at will in the IPL 4 months ago... It looks weird that none of them could accelerate & the inexperienced Hong Kong batsmen skimmed the Indian bowling with ease, on the same pitch.
India's bowling:- We had Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal. These bowlers keep international hard hitters tied down & quiet in IPL. But they were made to look absolutely stingless & ordinary. It was a pathetic display in front of batsmen with no experience of facing quality attack, who were batting under pressure of chasing almost 300 against India, the Cricketing Giants, a side that's been amongst the top 3 cricket playing sides in the world since quite a while.
Even the tail end Hong Kong batsmen smoked sixes. As India won the match only by 26 runs, with just a little bit of luck Hong Kong could have easily caused the biggest upset of the Asia Cup 2018 tournament.
Only inclusion of Jaspreet Bumrah will be the discipline enforcing factor in today's India vs Pakistan match. Either Ravinder Jadeja or Hardik Pandya could get a look in depending on the contemporary match/pitch scenario. India's batting line will mostly be the same as yesterday.
One big factor, probably the most decisive & impactful factor would be the disciplined, left arm pace & swing bowling attack of the Pakistanis in IndvsPak game. Couple it with Pakistanis treating UAE, Dubai, Sharjah as their home grounds, the crowd support. The mental & physical exhaustion due to back to back matches of Indian players.
It will be a real test of stamina, physical endurance, mental strength of the team & leadership skills of Rohit Sharma to motivate his team & get the optimal performance out from every individual to compete fiercely & win this match...
