Before the Indian team management shifts to a “Plan B” ahead of the T20 World Cup, which begins in six weeks, a struggling Shubman Gill will likely have three games against South Africa to establish his worth. The countdown to save his spot in the starting XI has begun.
Things are suddenly heating up in the Indian dressing room as they prepare to play the third Twenty20 International against the Proteas on Sunday in sub-10 degree temperatures in the heart of the ice-covered Dhauladhar range. Suryakumar Yadav, the captain, has been playing poorly for a long time. Even worse, Shubman Gill, his deputy, is not instilling much confidence after being forced into the XI at the expense of a settled Sanju Samson.
The HPCA Stadium strip, which provides additional bounce and some movement off the surface, will undoubtedly keep the South African pace attack, which includes Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Ottniel Baartman, and Lutho Sipamla, intrigued. They have demonstrated how to bowl on Indian tracks.
Out of all the T20 teams, South Africa seems to have the right mix of players to win the trophy in the Indian subcontinent this time. Their batting appears formidable with the return of Quinton de Kock and players like Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Donovan Ferreira, David Miller, and all-rounder Jansen.
With just eight games remaining before the T20 World Cup title defense begins, beginning with the third Twenty20 International, India’s struggling head coach Gautam Gambhir will not be able to afford to start two out-of-form top-order hitters.
Despite being completely out of form for the past year, Suryakumar, the team’s captain, will undoubtedly have immunity going into the T20 World Cup. However, Gill, who wasn’t initially selected as an opener, won’t have the same protection.
So far, the Indian team’s contentious choice to start Gill instead of a settled Samson has backfired. In T20 Internationals this year, the vice-captain of India has struggled with the bat, scoring just 263 runs at a strike rate of 142.93 in 14 games without hitting a half-century.
In this context, Gill would have to give it his all to demonstrate that the committee led by Ajit Agarkar was correct to fire Samson for a single poor series against England.
If he doesn’t want Samson to regain his proper position, the stylish Indian Test and ODI captain will need to find his T20 game and at least play a big knock in two of the three matches. He also wouldn’t want Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has an incredible T20I strike-rate of 165, to enter the fray during the New Zealand series.
Sending Axar Patel as a one-drop batter during the second Twenty20 International was a “tactical brain fade” from the team’s think tank, even though head coach Gambhir is too arrogant to acknowledge this.
In the third game, where the captain is anticipated to return to No. 3, where he has had great success in his first few years at the international level, the same error that was made with Axar’s elevation is unlikely to be repeated.
In a similar vein, Shivam Dube’s placement at number eight as a result of the batting order shuffle was another bad decision that needed to be changed for the following game.
One bowler who has regularly plagued the Proteas batsman is Kuldeep Yadav, but the left-arm wrist spinner frequently gets the short end of the stick in an Indian lineup where batting till No. 8 is a must.
He may also have to sit out at Dharamsala because two non-batters, Kuldeep and Varun Chakravarthy, cannot be included in the same T20 playing eleven since doing so would damage batting depth.
It would be intriguing to see if team management can find a spot for Kuldeep in the playing eleven with Hardik Pandya sharing the new ball with Jasprit Bumrah, even though Arshdeep hasn’t had a strong series thus far.
Teams:
India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (w/k), Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson (w/k), Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock (w/k), Reeza Hendricks, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs (w/k), Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Lutho Sipamla, Ottniel Baartman, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, George Linde
