In a perfect England team performance, Will Jacks would neither have to bat nor bowl. As it has turned out, the spin-bowling all-rounder is the team’s MVP at the ongoing T20 World Cup with 191 runs (strike-rate 176.85) from seven innings and seven wickets at an average of 22.14.
“I don’t believe that we need a perfect game to win the competition,” Harry Brook, the England white-ball captain, said emphatically at the pre-match press conference.
In a perfect campaign, India wouldn’t have needed to call upon Sanju Samson at the expense of tweaking their batting order a bit. Ahead of the World Cup, Gautam Gambhir & Co had decided that Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan would be the team’s preferred opening combination, with Tilak Varma batting at No. 3. As Abhishek hit an unexpected form slump, the defending champions had to resort to a Plan B, which was to bring Sanju back at the top and move Tilak down the order. India won convincingly against Zimbabwe and the West Indies, but England are a different kettle of fish.
“Yeah, I mean for us, that is something we haven’t really spoken about, the perfect game,” Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, lacked Brook’s swagger at the pre-match presser. “I think the quality of this team has shown that on the day somebody can put their hand up and put up a performance. And then, hopefully now in the last two games, especially tomorrow night, we can put out that special performance in.”
Move on to the pitch factor and how Brook and Morkel reacted to it. Sample this from the England skipper: “I don’t know (how the pitch will play). You’re asking the wrong man. I don’t know anything about wickets. I will have a chat with Baz (head coach Brendon McCullum) tonight and tomorrow before the game. We will have a look at the stats and see what to do first if we win the toss.”
With the allowance to read between the lines and interpret it, Brook sort of channelled his inner Ravi Shastri, “pitch ko nikalo game se bhaad main gaya pitch”. Morkel, on the contrary, sounded a bit iffy: “It’s a lot hotter all of a sudden in India. The pitch has been watered. It’s still a bit soft and it’s difficult to read it right now. But if it’s a high-scoring game, we need to up our standards.”
It is likely to be a traditional Wankhede pitch, full of runs and at the same time giving a bit of purchase to quality bowling. On the face of it, given Kuldeep Yadav’s record against England, playing him could be a valid temptation. Then again, it’s a small ground and Arshdeep Singh angling the ball across an out-of-form Jos Buttler is a bigger wicket-taking prospect. Fitness permitting, India are likely to go unchanged.
For England, spin-bowling all-rounder Rehan Ahmed is set to make way for fast-bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton.
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