Despite his lack of success in the prestigious competition thus far, legendary former captain Kapil Dev stated that the Indian team management should keep Abhishek Sharma for the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand.
Abhishek is viewed as a possible weakness for India if he continues to play in the summit match on Sunday in Ahmedabad. He has only scored one half-century in the mega-event, against Zimbabwe.
“Just believe in your team and the management should believe in the player. And Abhishek should believe in himself that ‘I can perform and I will perform’. Still one game is there – the final,” Kapil said on Friday.
In an exciting semifinal match on Thursday night in Mumbai, India beat England by 7 runs. Jacob Bethell (105 off 48 balls) and Will Jacks (35 off 20 balls) staged a counter-offensive that put the Indians in trouble despite their massive 253. According to Kapil, he did not anticipate the game being this close.
“I didn’t think that it would become this difficult, when India score 250-plus, it was a brilliant game. Yes, India won, congratulations to them, but in the end it was cricket’s win. I enjoyed it a lot, not as a bowler though,” the pace great quipped.
India star Jasprit Bumrah’s poise in the crucial match delighted Kapil, who claimed that his death overs performance once again demonstrated why he is regarded as the greatest in the world.
“Bumrah is the Number one bowler in the world, he is the best. Why is he the best? Because he delivers under pressure and the way he bowls. He deserves all the respect from everybody,” he said.
According to Kapil, opener Sanju Samson’s 42-ball 89, which served as the cornerstone of India’s enormous score, was equally commendable.
“He is a brilliant cricketer, a big player can go out of target sometime, what happened to Abhishek, but if they are big, they are big and they will come back. And Sanju really played wonderful cricket in the last two games,” he said, referring to his 97 in the must-win Super Eight game against the West Indies earlier in the tournament.
