Sports
India Predicted XI vs SL 1st T20: Will Ishan Kishan open? Jadeja, Bumrah return
India face Sri Lanka in the first T20I on Thursday in Lucknow. While it will be a significantly different team to the one that recently faced the West Indies in a three-match T20I series, India remain firm favourites to get another cleansweep considering they are the hosts.
Former captain Virat Kohli and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who was vice-captain against the West Indies in the absence of KL Rahul, have both been rested for the series while fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja both return. Suryakumar Yadav, who was arguably India’s best batter against the West Indies, and fast bowler Deepak Chahar have been ruled out with injury as well.
Here is a look at the predicted playing XI:
- Rohit Sharma: The Indian captain has enjoyed a good start to his tenure in the position on a full-time basis and will be looking avoid any upsets in the series. Rohit scored a 19-ball 40 in the first T20I against the West Indies but could only score 19 and seven in the second and third matches and so he would be looking to get some consistency going for himself.
- Ruturaj Gaikwad: It remains to be seen whether India will choose to stick with Ishan Kishan but considering the vacancies in the middle order, Gaikwad could be given another go in the position. Gaikwad could score just four runs in the third T20I and will be looking to make a case for himself, something he hasn’t been able to do in the three international matches he has played thus far.
- Shreyas Iyer: Shreyas could be given a steady run in the series due to the absence of Kohli and Suryakumar. He scored a handy 25 off 16 balls in the third T20I against the West Indies and also scored 80 in the third ODI before that. Rohit himself admitted that it was unfair that a player of Shreyas’s quality is having to sit out.
- Ishan Kishan: Ishan would know that his days in the playing XI are numbered unless he manages to turn it around with the bat. The absence of Pant means that he is expected to play all the matches but the fact that he scored just 71 runs in the three T20Is against the West Indies with a meagre strike rate of 85.54 would weigh heavy on him.
- Venkatesh Iyer: Venkatesh Iyer finally got to show a glimpse of his all-round abilities when he took two wickets in addition to scoring an unbeaten 35 off 19 balls in the third T20I against the West Indies. Venkatesh put in consistent performances from the lower middle order and would be a regular in the squad.
- Ravindra Jadeja: The ace all-rounder will be playing his first international match since November last year. Jadeja will be looking to get back into the swing after the lengthy period he spent on the sidelines due to injury.
- Harshal Patel: He led the way in stifling the West Indies for runs in the death overs of their chase in the third T20I and has made a case for himself to be included the playing XI for the T20 World Cup. Harshal was India’s highest wicket taker in the West Indies series.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar: After a lacklustre performance in South Africa, Bhuvneshwar showed why he was regarded as India’s lead bowler before injuries hampered his career in the series against the West Indies. However, there was a chance that he would have been dropped due to Bumrah’s return and the absence of Deepak Chahar in the series has kept him in the squad.
- Mohammed Siraj: India could also consider giving Avesh Khan another cap in the first T20I but Siraj might just get the nod ahead of him due to his experience. Siraj didn’t play in the T20I series against he West Indies but took five wickets in the preceding three-match ODI series against the them.
- Jasprit Bumrah: The ace fast bowler has been appointed vice-captain for the series and the subsequent two Test matches. Like Jadeja, this would be the first time he will play in a T20I match since the 2021 T20 World Cup.
- Yuzvendra Chahal: Chahal was rested in the third T20I against the West Indies but he was instrumental in limiting the flow of runs in the series. It does look like he has regained the team management’s trust and he will be looking to continue on the same vein to book a seat for himself in the flight to Australia later this year.
Complete News Source : Hindustan Times
Cricket
KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill
To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe
VVS Laxman went through the first half of his illustrious 15-and-a-half-year international career with the proverbial axe hanging over him. Despite his magical stroke-play and a well-founded reputation for rallying the lower order to bat above itself, he was forever the first name that sprang to the decision-makers’ minds when they had to drop someone to accommodate someone else. It wasn’t until the second half of his stint with the national team that he had ‘job security’, which automatically manifested itself in an array of glorious, match-turning knocks and earmarked him as one for a crisis.
KL Rahul is now dangerously close to approaching the Laxman territory, though at least in this instance, a case can be made out, perhaps, for why he often seems to be playing for his place. Almost a decade after his Test debut in Australia in December 2014, he has yet to nail down a permanent spot, a result of glaring inconsistency and repeated dalliances with injuries that have left him with a modest average of 33.87 from 53 Test appearances.
Unlike Laxman, who was thrust to the opener’s position for three years from 1997, successive team managements have worked overtime to create space for Rahul. He started off in the middle order in Melbourne against Australia, opened in the next Test in Sydney when he made a sparkling century, continued in that position for a good nine years – around the large pockets when either injuries or lack of form relegated him to the sidelines – and now seems to have found his calling in the middle order, where he was tried out in an almost last throw of the dice in South Africa last December.
In his limited time at the No. 6 position, Rahul has been a revelation. On a spiteful surface in Centurion in his first innings back in the middle order, the classy right-hander made a marvellous 101 – Virat Kohli’s 38 was the next highest score – in India’s 245 all out. Two Tests later, against England in Hyderabad, he waltzed to 86 of the best until a hamstring strain kept him out of the last four Tests.
On his comeback last month against Bangladesh, Rahul showed why he is rated so highly, and therefore why he so frustrates when he chooses to shackle himself mentally, with uninhibited shot-making when India were pressing for a declaration (Chennai) and looking to make up for lost time with a frenetic batting approach (Kanpur) in the two Tests. Kanpur was especially mesmeric, 68 flowing off his bat in a mere 43 deliveries. It was the best of Rahul.
Axe hangs over Rahul’s head for India vs New Zealand 2nd Test
And yet here we are, two innings later, wondering whether he will, or should, feature in the playing XI in Pune, where India take on New Zealand in a must-win second Test from Thursday.
Shubman Gill, him of three centuries in his last six Tests, missed the Bengaluru defeat to the Kiwis with a stiff neck. Replacement batter Sarfaraz Khan made the most of own good fortune with a delectable 150, which makes it near impossible to drop him now that Gill is fully fit. To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula which has worked beautifully in the last few years, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe.
One of the few men to have led India in all three formats internationally, Rahul didn’t help his cause with scores of 0 and 12 at his home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In the first innings, he was strangled down leg-side by William O’Rourke while in the second, he received a peach from the same paceman operating with the second new ball and was again caught behind. Rahul was one of 11 failures in India’s first-innings 46 and one of seven wickets to fall in 93 deliveries to the second new cherry, but failures past and the logjam created by Gill’s availability have combined to identify him as the most susceptible to the axe.
It’s a cross impossible to bear, but also impossible to ignore just because it is so heavy, so overarching. Rahul is beyond gifted and makes batting appear oh-so-simple, but his struggles to embrace sustained run-making can’t be wished away. He is the eternal team man, much like his celebrated namesake also from Karnataka – both kept wickets admirably in 50-over World Cups 21 years apart, both made attractive and impactful runs during the tournament and both tasted bitter defeat at the hands of Australia in the final – but ‘eternal team man’ can sometimes be an euphemism for the ‘most dispensable’ and Rahul can be excused for thinking that those two lines have blurred beyond repair. Of course, if he is brutally honest to himself, he will acknowledge at least to himself that he too must bear culpability for the blurring of the lines.
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