T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli, Kuldeep Yadav look skywards ahead of India vs Canada (2024)

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The first objective of any team going into a global tournament is to advance to the second stage.India secured their entry into the Super Eight phaseof the T20 World Cup at the first time of asking, with three victories on the bounce from the Group Askirmishes in New York. A comprehensivedrubbing of Ireland, a superbsix-run triumphin a wonderful defence of 119 against Pakistan and acomfortable win in the end against the USAenabled Rohit Sharma’s men to justify pre-tournament favouritism with reasonable comfort.

T20 World Cup 2024:News|Schedule|Results|Points Table

Saturday’s final league encounter against Canada, in Fort Lauderdale which is being touted as the home of US cricket, holds no tangible meaning. India are guaranteed top spot from a group in which Pakistan were also expected to qualify, but crashed out after Friday’sUSA-Ireland game proved to be a non-starter, facilitating the Americans’ progress in their maiden World Cup appearance. The top-dog status in the group, however, doesn’t come with any perks; there is no carrying forward of points, no net run rate to account for a bad day in the second phase. It’s a fresh start, in every sense of the term.

India’s Group 1 opponents in the Super Eights will be Afghanistan, their first opponents in Bridgetown on 20 June, Australia and Bangladesh. On the face of it, qualification to the semis looks straightforward, but as Pakistan have found out the hard way in the last two weeks, there isnothing straightforward when it comes to the 20-over game.

New York ✅#TeamIndia arrive in Florida 🛬 for their last group-stage match of the #T20WorldCup! 👍 pic.twitter.com/vstsaBbAQx

— BCCI (@BCCI) June 14, 2024

Ticking over like a well-oiled machine, India stuck with an unchanged XI in New York and will be tempted to try out options against Canada at the Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium,weather permitting of course. That’s a big ask, though; both scheduled matches in Fort Lauderdale have been washed out, angry black clouds swarmed overhead for much of Friday and the forecast isn’t encouraging, which means some of India’s plans might take a hit.

One of their prime objectives would have been forVirat Kohli to work his way backamong the runs. Thepitches in New Yorkare hardly the barometers against which to measure form and Kohli has far too much class, pedigree and experience to allow himself to be bogged down by five runs from three outings; more than anyone else, he would love to bat on a truer surface against Canada at a ground that has only yielded him 63 runs in three previous T20Is, but his desire is at the mercy of the weather gods.

India won’t seriously consider jettisoning the move to open with Kohli on the back of what transpired in New York. They will back their former skipper to come good at the business end; after all, it was less than a month back that he was scoring runs for fun, stacking up more than 700 of them for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL. He can’t have become a ‘suspect’ opener in a matter of a week, right?

Rohit Sharma had made it clear before the team left for the World Cup that four spinners in the 15 were picked at his insistence. Only two have been seen so far, both left-arm spinning all-rounders of whom Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling wasn’t required against the USA. Jadeja and Axar Patel are still central to India’s plans but if at some stage the think-tanks feels that one of them will suffice if they plump for a more attacking spinner in Kuldeep Yadav, it could be Jadeja who might be warming the bench.

Be happy always 😊 pic.twitter.com/tE05cABT6R

— Ravindrasinh jadeja (@imjadeja) June 4, 2024

Jadeja has had a very quiet tournament, dismissed first-ball in his only hit against Pakistan and going wicketless in his three overs. Axar has had more to do in both departments. Against Pakistan, he was pushed up to No. 4 and helped Rishabh Pant add a crucial 39 for the third wicket, weighing in with a measured 20. Six overs have fetched him three for 39. Both had similar IPLs – Axar made 235 runs (SR 131.28) and took 11 wickets (economy 7.65) to Jadeja’s 267 (SR 142.78) and eight (economy 7.85). Axar currently seems to enjoy the confidence of the brains’ trust more than his colleague from Saurashtra, whose unbelievable fielding remains unmatched.

One of the reasons for India being put in a position to choose between Axar and Jadeja is the need to bring Kuldeep into the picture. The left-arm wrist-spinner had a superb IPL with 16 wickets from 11 games, has matured into an excellent Test match exponent and left Yuzvendra Chahal way behind in the wrist-spinning stakes. He can change the course of a match in one over, even against excellent players of spin like the Afghans and Bangladeshis are, even if there isn’t too much purchase from the pitch. As the tournament is played exclusively in the Caribbean in the final two weeks, Kuldeep will become a massive factor in India’s push for the title.

Like Kohli, Kuldeep, too, will spend some chunk of Friday evening looking skywards and hoping for the break that could ignite his World Cup. He will see Canada as the appetiser before the bigger obstacles in store but it’s possible that he might have do away with the entrée and tuck straightaway into the main course.

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