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The Indian team will lock horns with New Zealand in their fourth match of the ICC World Cup 2023 on Sunday at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala. Both the teams on the points table are the only ones in the tournament to have not lost a match so far.
It’s’ a huge game for both teams. Obviously, they are in great form as both teams have won four out of four games. I think India and New Zealand have been the teams to beat so far in the tournament. Talking about Dharamshala, as a ground, it’s been always a high-scoring venue, so I don’t think it’ll be any different for this encounter either. It has high altitude, and small boundaries, which overall lead to a good batting pitch and it should be a high-scoring affair.
New Zealand’s been the bogey team for India and last 20 years, India hasn’t won a game in an ICC event against New Zealand. The last time India won was in 2003. So it’s been a while since India has beaten New Zealand in an ICC tournament across all formats. It hasn’t been easy for India to beat New Zealand in the ICC tournament. So that’s something India would also be mindful of.
The biggest talking point is the absence of Hardik Pandya and what would the composition be because it’s so difficult to replace someone like Hardik Pandya. And it’s not just about Indian cricket, even in world cricket, you don’t have too many of them who can actually give you ten overs with the ball and play as a batter as well.
So when you look at replacing Hardik, you are looking at two players to replace him. So that’s the biggest challenge and obviously, there are two schools of thought. On one side, you go in with five bowlers and six batters, so you replace Hardik with Suryakumar Yadav. But to strengthen your bowling, rather than having Shardul, you have someone like Mohammed Shami. So you know that you have five bowlers and six batters. Obviously, if required, someone like Rohit, and Virat, are also there. I know they have been bowling in the nets. We saw Virat bowling a few deliveries in the last game. They can contribute with a few overs here and there.
The other school of thought is there are quite a few left-handers on the New Zealand side, so why not Ashwin? So you bat till eight and you have those bowlers as well, all six of them. So that’s the other school of thought and you can actually give it a serious thought as well. And it’s also fair, like I said that there are too many left-handers in that New Zealand batting lineup. But what we’ve seen as far as the game plan of the Indian team or the strategy is concerned, they’ve actually gone in with Ashwin on pitches where there is turn, which is spin-friendly and they’ve gone with Shardul on pitches, which are batting friendly or if at all, we’ll get a seam friendly pitch. But this situation is different and as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather go with six batters and five bowlers. So Shami for Shardul and Surya in place of Hardik or the absence of Hardik.
Well, we’re talking about Dharamshala. So, obviously, you’re looking at the batters and the form. And good part is, that this Indian team is not just dependent on one or two players. Shubman, Rohit, Virat, and KL Rahul, all seem to be in good form. Yes. Ideally, you would have wanted Shreyas to have scored a few more runs, but, yeah, I don’t think there’s only one or two battles that India is dependent on, so that’s a good part.
Deep Dasgupta Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
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