Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has hinted at a significant change in the playing XI for their upcoming T20 World Cup Super 8 encounter against Afghanistan. The match is scheduled for Thursday in Bridgetown, Barbados, where conditions appear to favour spin bowlers.
A possible change in India’s playing XI
During a pre-match press conference, Dravid acknowledged the different playing surfaces encountered so far in the tournament. India predominantly relied on their pace bowling attack at Nassau County Stadium in New York, where the drop-in pitches had uneven bounce that favoured the quick bowlers.
“It’s tough to leave anyone out. I mean all the four guys that we left out in those games, to be honest, are all quality players. It’s just that the conditions and what we felt was the requirement in that particular venue made us go with that particular combination where we felt that there wasn’t a huge role for spin and it was more of pace more of kind of conditions,” said Dravid.
The inclusion of a spinner would be a strategic shift for India, utilizing the spin-friendly conditions in Barbados.
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“And we also wanted to ensure that we had the depth on those tricky kind of tickets . So that’s what we went there with. You know, it might be different here. Without giving too much away, certainly. You know, it might be slightly different here. That you might need an extra spinner and then someone like Kuldeep or Yuzi can come into play. They become a very good factor for us,” said Dravid ahead of the Afghanistan clash.
Both Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are proven wicket-takers in the T20 format, and their presence could pose a significant challenge to the Afghan batters.
Flexibility in India’s batting order
Dravid also added that India will be flexible in their batting order and change it as per the match situation.
“Each situation is unique. Can’t set it in stone. I believe in flexibility. The Pakistan game we moved Axar [Patel], specifically thinking around it… Rishabh [Pant] up the order [at No. 3], lots of thinking goes into it. I don’t think in Tests [cricket], we will have that flexibility. In T20s where it is a lot about match-ups, you see it happening more [flexibility in batting position],” the former India captain added.
