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Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli opened up on his wish to “surprise the opposition” by experimenting with his middle order in the remaining T-20s against Ireland and the succeeding three-match series against England.
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In the first T-20 against Ireland which India won by 76 runs and without any fuss, Kohli pushed himself down the order at six, with Suresh Raina coming in at three followed by MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya at four and five.
“We have already announced that apart from the opening combination we are going to do a lot of experiments in the middle order. We are going to be flexible in the next few T20s. We will look to throw in guys when the situation requires them to come in and try to surprise the opposition,” said the Indian skipper at the post-match presentation.
“It presents the opportunity for the batsmen who couldn’t get the opportunity to bat. The guys who couldn’t get a chance today will get an opportunity in the next match. The guys had a great time in IPL but they need to get time in the middle here too,” he added.
The sudden shuffle in the middle order however did not pay off against the Irish with Kohli getting out for a duck, while Raina and Dhoni made 10 and 11 respectively. But India avoided an embarrassment because the openers had already put up a 160-run stand, with Rohit Sharma falling just three shy of a century while Shikhar Dhawan got out for 74 runs.
Kohli though assured that this was done so that everyone in the squad gets a game. “The team management decided to give a go to everyone in the squad. The guys are fine with this decision. We are looking to give everyone game-time and want them to portray the qualities they possess because many guys go on tour and never get an opportunity to play,” said the Indian skipper.
India’s bowling unlike its batting however continued their form giving away just 132 runs in 20 overs and taking nine wickets. The spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal accounted for seven of those between themselves, with the Chinaman taking four of them.
The Irish batsman couldn’t find a way to tackle the spinners and threw their wickets away trying big shots. Opener James Shannon was the lone batsman who got to a half-century, eventually getting out for a 60 off 35 balls.
Ireland captain Gary Wilson later accepted that his batsman will have to learn to play the Indian spinners. “They are a world-class side and their lads at the top played beautifully. I expected it to be a good wicket, I did not expect it to spin as it did in the second innings. We could have bowled spinners in the powerplay,” he said after the match.
“You can always do things differently when things don’t go your way. We are going to have a chat to tackle their spinners. James Shannon (opener) had a good match so that is one positive we can take from this match,” he added.
India next play Ireland on Friday in the final T-20 of the two match series before heading to England for a three-month long tour.
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