Kiwis English news | Kiwis, Latest News & Live Updates in English | English News (Latest English News) at Lokmattimes.com

While the Indian bowling attack has been on a roll across formats in the last couple of seasons, the performance in the opening game against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in Dubai on Sunday left a lot to be desired. Pakistan won by 10 wickets and that showed how the Indian bowling lacked bite to create an impact on the slowish Dubai pitch.The Pakistan bowlers showed great adaptation skills as they picked seven Indian wickets. But for India, not just the pacers, even the spinners failed to rise to the challenge. The spin bowling duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja bowled their complete quota of overs but failed to pick a wicket.While Varun was slightly expensive and finished with figures of 0/33 from his four, Jadeja managed figures of 0/28 off his four. This after the two were preferred over R Ashwin for the big game. If the loss to Pakistan wasn't bad enough, Pakistan going on to beat New Zealand has made Sunday's game against the Kiwis a must-win encounter for Virat Kohli and boys.The question is whether the Indian team management would look to fall back on its most experienced spinner in R Ashwin. While he last played an international T20 against the West Indies in 2017, Ashwin has been an integral part of the Delhi Capitals squad in the last two seasons and has enough idea about the wickets on offer in Dubai as the last two seasons saw a complete season being played in UAE in 2020 and half the season being played here in 2021.Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar feels Virat Kohli needs spinners who can give him breakthroughs and just containing the batsmen won't work. "India needs wicket taking spinners. Any spinner who bowls to get wickets and not obsess over the economy is my guy," he told ANI.In fact, Yuzvendra Chahal could have been the perfect answer to the pointer thrown forward by Manjrekar, but sadly he missed the bus for the T20 World Cup as the selectors believed Varun, Jadeja, Ashwin and Rahul Chahar are better options.Interestingly, skipper Virat Kohli had mentioned during the pre-tournament captain's call that Ashwin has what Manjrekar is looking for going into the big game against New Zealand."You have seen in the IPL over the last two years that he has bowled the difficult overs against the biggest hitters. He has not been shy to put the ball in the right areas, Ashwin has believed in his skillset. And we felt the way he was bowling with variations, he is a guy who has played a lot of international cricket."So, hence Ashwin has been rewarded for reviving his white-ball skills altogether. He was a regular feature for us back in the day but he fell off, finger spinners with accuracy have come back into the game. So we also need to evolve as a team," Kohli had said.It will be interesting to see if Ashwin is indeed back for his first game in almost four years in the international T20 arena come Sunday. He did have a long session at the nets on Wednesday as he first bowled and then had a hit as well. But assuming on the basis of training sessions isn't something one should do when it comes to Indian cricket.( With inputs from ANI )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

KiwisFOLLOW

Kiwis, Latest News

The performance of the Indian cricket team in the T20 World Cup has been anything but satisfactory so far and keeping in mind the fatigue of the players due to the bubble life, some senior players will be rested for the T20I series against New Zealan ...

Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has explained the "critical" point where Team India went wrong on Sunday against New Zealand in the ongoing T20 World Cup. ...

Former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum was left impressed with the Kiwis' performance against India in the T20 World Cup on Sunday. ...

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has labelled the New Zealand side as the "best all format" cricket team in the world. ...

Having warmed up with the rest of the team, India all-rounder Hardik Pandya continued to work on strengthening his back on Saturday as he underwent an extended session of fitness drills under the watchful eyes of physio Nitin Patel and assistant stre ...

New Zealand pacer Trent Boult feels the Kiwis have the desired skill set to defeat India in the T20 World Cup match on Sunday. ...

Going into the game against New Zealand, the Indian team management would definitely have to sit down and decide whether they will go in with the same spin-bowling duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja or pick one from R Ashwin and Rahul Chah ...

While the Indian bowling attack has been on a roll across formats in the last couple of seasons, the performance in the opening game against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in Dubai on Sunday left a lot to be desired. Pakistan won by 10 wickets and tha ...