Sydney: India will be looking to move a step closer to the semifinals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 when they face Netherlands in their second match of the tournament here on Thursday (October 27).
It is a mismatch on the periphery, as India have oodles of experience and quality that Netherlands can only dream of.
Netherlands had their greatest moment under the sun when they had beaten England in the T20 World Cup in 2009 in the latter’s backyard and they would want another such glorious chapter against a fancied India.
But even the possibility of such a shocking result is way out of the grasp as this India side is brimming with match winners and players adept in the shortest format.
The only question of interest is whether India will bring in any changes to their playing 11 after a high intensity game against Pakistan at the MCG last Sunday, which they had won by 4 wickets.
India will be eager to maintain the level of intensity
India will be eager to maintain the same level of intensity even though Netherlands do not offer the kind of opposition Pakistan did. So, the chances of India resting any of their front-line players is quite remote.
However, India might just consider giving a go to Yuzvendra Chahal either in the place of Axar Patel or R Ashwin. Axar had bowled only 1 over against Pakistan and it went for plenty as Iftikhar Ahmad went after the left-arm spinner.
Ashwin, who hammered the winning runs for India in that game, too did not bowl an impressive spell in that match, going for 9 runs in an over.
But it should not be forgotten that India will not like to tinker too much with the playing 11 as they would be keen to give as much opportunity as possible to the first choice players.
Lot of Indian players are not used to playing in foreign conditions
India skipper Rohit Sharma too concurred with that view. “A lot of the guys are not used to playing in foreign conditions, be it Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand, and all those countries.
"It's always nice to have time in hand, and this was a conscious effort from the team management, BCCI, that come the big tournament, we want to have time in hand to prepare ourselves, and the talk of having time in hand started right after the last World Cup.
“We said, we know where the World Cup is happening, and we made a very conscious decision of going to Australia a little earlier than expected because we were supposed to play the series against South Africa which unfortunately we all had to miss to prepare for this big event,” Rohit had said.
So let’s brace for this interesting clash!
