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Asia Cup: India look to tame Pakistan a third time
Despite two easy wins, India must remain alert to any slip up in the T20 Asia Cup final in Dubai on Sunday
Kolkata: Handshakes snubbed, press conferences cancelled, threats to exit the tournament made and rescinded, players pulled up and fined for making inappropriate gestures and statements — never has an India-Pakistan match had a build-up this long and edgy as we go into Sunday’s Asia Cup final in Dubai.
On the face of it, India have no reason to worry as it’s a rematch after two comprehensive drubbings for Pakistan. But tournament finals find a way to be influenced by nerves, and Pakistan may be wondering if the third time would finally bring them luck.
It is in this backdrop of plots and subplots are India and Pakistan squaring up for the final, a first in the tournament’s 41-year history. Pakistan would like to believe they are slowly peaking. India know they needed the reality check handed by Sri Lanka on Friday. On paper, they aren’t evenly matched, but this rivalry has rarely been only about that. And Pakistan might want to claim that the two defeats to India are part of the learning curve that will lead to the win that really matters.
For that to happen, Pakistan need to bat big. They could do that only for the Powerplay in the first match before India’s spinners knocked the wind out of their sails. The next game saw a marginal improvement as Pakistan raced to 91/1 at the halfway mark before choking again. Pakistan have pushed to start on a high tempo, but to be on top of India they will have to dominate the middle overs when Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel operate. The trio has accounted for 22 wickets at a staggering economy of 6.43 in this tournament, which means Pakistan have their task cut out.
Jasprit Bumrah is set to come back as India wouldn’t want to tinker with the eleven that has won both the Pakistan matches so far. That means Hardik Pandya is likely to share the new ball again with Shivam Dube as backup, with the latter likely to be used as middle overs batting enforcer again with Axar as floater. It will be interesting to see how India use Sanju Samson after his scorching display against Sri Lanka. Pandya has always been considered a lower order anchor but India need a clean right-handed hitter in the middle who can turn the game on its head in a few balls, partly because skipper Suryakumar Yadav hasn’t been himself.
Not just in the Asia Cup, Suryakumar’s strike rate has been only 110 this year, stark considering his image as one of the most innovative batters of our times. The unbeaten 47 against Pakistan in the first match was special, but so lean have been the other outings that it may have started to get worrying. More than the runs, it’s his struggle that has looked odd when everyone else has adapted to the two-paced pitches and the slow outfield in Dubai. With everything happening off the field, Surya may want to use the final to go back to what he does best.
Barring Friday, India’s batting has been far from perfect. Surya’s struggles aside, there is the small issue of none of India’s batters apart from the openers returning a strike rate of more than 132 even after facing lesser fancied teams. Maybe the continuous shuffling is taking a toll on the psyche of the batters trying to find the ideal way to score in the UAE.
Rotating the strike better is one way of ridding themselves of the initial blues, Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, said after the Sri Lanka match. “If we start with the batting, can we on tough conditions rotate the strike a little bit better? Can we protect partnerships a little bit? Because for a new batter walking in here is quite tough to start, but still have that aggressive mindset,” said Morkel.
The only batter who is on autopilot is Abhishek Sharma, and India need him again to set the tempo with Shubman Gill. He has hit three fifties on the trot, and at least on two occasions looked good to convert them into hundreds. None other than Sanath Jayasuriya has praised his batting style, singling out Sharma for more success in the future because he knows how to pace his innings.
“Whenever he wants to slow down a bit, he knows how to do it,” the Sri Lanka coach said after Friday’s match. “So, after six overs (of Powerplay) if he wants to bat for a longer period, he is doing that. So, day by day he is getting (more) runs and he is batting really well.”
But it’s also about time the law of averages acts against Sharma. For all the starts they have pulled off, India haven’t always finished with the flair they would have liked in the second half of their batting. And in the last match, Pakistan found a way to get under Bumrah’s skin, scoring 45 runs off him. India have been riled so far but not overwhelmed. Never have Pakistan got so many opportunities to learn from their failures in one tournament. That’s why India are not exactly slam dunk favourites for Sunday.
