India’s hitting in the middle overs between overs seven and 15 is the main concern, which emerged from BCCI’s Asia Cup Review meeting ahead of the all-important ICC T20 World Cup starting on October 16. India’s first game of the showpiece is in Melbourne against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23. On Monday, the BCCI announced the team for the big event along with the six T20I matches against Australia and South Africa, which start on September 20.
However, apart from the selection of the roster, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah together with the national selection committee discussed the disappointing performance of the national team during the continental championship.
“Yes, the Asia Cup performance was discussed. But it is clear that more than problems the focus is on solutions and what are the things to improve during the T20 World Cup,” a senior BCCI official informed was of the developments, to PTI about the terms of anonymity.
While there were a few issues, they all agreed that India’s pedestrian approach in the midfield is going to be a problem against better teams and was a problem during the Asian Cup.
“There’s an obvious problem with hitting in the center overs, especially between 7th and 15th where we didn’t do well in the Asian Cup. It’s clear the team’s think tank is aware and we have a number of world-class players, who can clearly change their game according to the needs of the team,” said the official.
If you look at the beating of India, be it goal setting or hunting, they wavered between the 7th and the 15th.
Against Pakistan in the opening match, 59 runs were scored in those nine overs, losing three wickets. Against Hong Kong it was 62 runs, while in the Super 4s it was 62 for 1 against Pakistan.
The best performance (other than the match in Afghanistan) was against Sri Lanka when 78 runs came from those nine overs.
The problem has been negotiating the slow bowlers, where some of the top players haven’t pushed themselves to the limit.
promoted
Samson’s name was not discussed for WT20
Prior to the Indian team’s roster, there was much buzz about the possible inclusion of Sanju Samson in the 15-man squad instead of Rishabh Pant, but it’s been learned that the Rajasthan Royals captain wasn’t even in contention.
“At least Sanju will play the ODIs against South Africa as the selectors will maintain continuity of the Zimbabwe tour. Also, there was never any discussion about dropping Pant. He is the only left-hander we have at the top and he can win a match on his day,” said the BCCI source.
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