India announced their 15-man squad for the upcoming Asia Cup, with Suryakumar Yadav leading the T20 unit and one big surprise decision as Shubman Gill came in and took up the vice-captaincy mantle.
India’s plan is pretty clear, and won’t deviate too much from what they have carried out in recent series. However, a big question mark remains over what the exact combination might look like.
Speaking to Sports Today, Sunil Gavaskar provided his choice for what India should take into this matchup. In particular, what stood out about Gavaskar’s team was his choice to fit in both Gill and Samson, making a case for the keeper lower down the order.
“He can still be in the team as somebody batting down the order. He can bat at 5 or 6. He shouldn’t be left out, after all he’s the wicket-keeper. Sanju is a very gifted player, he can adapt,” said Gavaskar. “He is used to batting down the order, we shouldn’t be too worried about him, he’s a class act.”
No big shocks in Gavaskar’s choices
Beyond this, there weren’t too many shocks in the direction Gavaskar opted to go, with his team likely to be the one that takes the field in India’s opener. “Your first choice XI and your batting order will depend on a lot of things, like what the pitch is like, who the opposition is, what their bowling attack is. The two certainties would be Abhishek and Shubman Gill, the two Punjab boys opening the batting together, that would be my opening pair. 3 and 4 would be Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav,” said Gavaskar, also indicating that India would maintain their left-hand right hand flexibility.
“Depending on what the score is or what you need, you either put Hardik Pandya a little bit ahead, or Sanju Samson goes in to bat, there is also somebody like Axar Patel who can come in and bat, how well he batted in the final of the T20 World Cup in Barbados. That would be the way to go,” said Gavaskar to round out the batting, naming players who would be comfortable right through that middle order and even finishing off innings.
Gavaskar’s bowling also had no shocks, opting for the four frontline options with his stock of allrounders seeing out a well-rounded unit: “As far as the bowling is concerned, I would go with Arshdeep as well as Bumrah to open the bowling, also have Axar and Hardik Pandya as the all-rounders, then Kuldeep and Varun Chakravarthy. Dube, Jitesh, Harshit, and Rinku Singh, it’s tough for them but that’s what it is.”