In the absence of the injured Rishabh Pant, Kishan, who has yet to play Test cricket, may provide the X-factor, but Sarandeep believes Bharat will go into the eleven as the main wicketkeeper.
KS Bharat is a sure thing. He is a real wicketkeeper for Test matches and we saw that against Australia at home he held up superbly. He has been around for a while and he should get this opportunity, Sarandeep told PTI on Wednesday.
The WTC finals will be held at the Oval in London from June 7.
The former Indian spinner said Kishan’s time will still come.
Ishaan is the opening player. I’m not saying he isn’t capable of playing in tests. He is one of the future players, but he is an opener in limited-overs cricket. It will be different with number six.
Yes, he hits hard from the first ball, which can be counterproductive in England, but Bharat can also bat well and play shots, he reasoned.
Umesh’s extra pace and old ball skills will come in handy
Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, who breathed fire in the recently concluded IPL, will share the load in the pace department and the Indian team will have to choose between Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur as the third fast bowling option.
I choose Umesh over Shardul because he has extra pace and can turn the old ball over, he can be very useful on the Oval circuit, Sarandeep said.
All the Indian batters are in good shape before this game and that bodes well for the team, he said.I don’t see any problem in terms of batting or bowling before the final. They are all in shape.
Yes, conditions in England will be tough as always and they will be going to Test mode with T20. The weather can change daily and India will have to adapt.
Facing bowlers like Stark, Cummins and Hazlewood is a huge challenge but we have a world class batting attack.
Shubman is the only one who hasn’t played much in England, but he is in the best form of his life and should make great strides there, said the 43-year-old, who was on the selection committee when India won the historic series in Australia in 2021.
Australian pacers don’t swing the ball as much
Australian pacers are used to playing tough stretches and don’t swing the ball as muchThe Indian Quiks or the British, and Sarandeep believes that this will work in India’s favor.
The ball has to swing first. Most Aussie pacers, their forte is hitting the length hard. They are not the ones who swing the ball hard.
ICC trophy drought should end with a WTC win
India have not won an ICC trophy since 2013 despite being considered the favorite before the worlds.Sarandeep said that in the big finals you have to be able to handle pressure and hopes that India will not have a bad day as it did last year in the T20 World Cup or in the 2019 ODI World Cup semifinals against New Zealand.
If you see, even at the 2019 World Cup we won most games and were favorites in the semifinals, but it rained, the game got moved to reserve day, and we lost the game.
If we talk about the last two years, yes, we lost big to Pakistan and England, but that will change (at the World Cup), he added.