India, who need to win every game to have any hope of progressing to the semi-final, come up against a Scotland side eager to make a mark in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
India’s tournament hopes are hanging by a thread.
After two losses at the start of the Super 12 stage, they had to win all the three remaining games, win those games well, and also hope for other results to go their way.
They accomplished the first of those requirements in their control with an imposing victory against Afghanistan. After a timid batting response in the first two games, the Indian openers helped set up a 200-plus total, with all of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya among the runs.
Next up for them are Scotland.
Since beating a higher-ranked Bangladesh in their opening fixture and coming through the first round undefeated, Scotland haven’t had a win in the Super 12 stage. However, they showed plenty of fight in the previous game against New Zealand to give them a scare. And they are eager for the rare chance to show what they can do against a top side such as India.
“Coming up against a side like India maybe just throws things into a new level, perhaps,” said Kyle Coetzer, the Scotland captain. “The opportunity to try to test yourself against some of the best players in the world is really important for us, it’s an important time for us, a phase in the Cricket Scotland journey, in terms of how we show what we do and show what we’re capable of.”
India have batted first in all of their games so far, and had the worst of the dew while bowling in the second innings. The dew factor could come into play again in Dubai. The stadium has hosted afternoon games over the last couple of days, with the surface being good for batting. It remains to be seen if the conditions change drastically under lights.
Fixture details
- The match: India v Scotland, Match 37
- Time: 18:00pm, Friday 5 November
- Venue: Dubai International Stadium
The teams
India brought in Ravichandran Ashwin in place of the injured Varun Chakravarthy for the Afghanistan game. Ashwin, in his first white-ball game in five years, had fantastic figures of 2/14, and will likely keep his spot. There are still questions about Hardik Pandya’s fitness to bowl, which will give India a much-needed sixth bowling option. The team will likely continue to be flexible with their batting order as per the match situation.
Probable XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (capt), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Scotland will rue the loss of pace bowler Josh Davey, who is ruled out of the tournament with a groin injury. Batter Michael Sole has been approved of his replacement.
While they may not make any changes to the batting, they will want their top order to build on starts and maintain partnerships – something they have struggled with at times.
Probable XI: George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer (capt), Calum MacLeod, Richie Berrington, Michael Leask, Matthew Cross (wk), Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Safyaan Sharif, Alasdair Evans, Brad Wheal
Key players
Ravichandran Ashwin: The India off-spinner is a canny operator. After five years away from the white-ball set-up, he fought his way back in by offering a host of variations and an ability to bowl anywhere in the innings. “When I bowl to a right-hander, I think like a left-handed spinner or a leg-spinner. When I bowl to a left-hander, I think like an off-spinner. So thinking creates the intent and the intent eventually translates into practice and then goes into a game,” he explained his process. Scotland will have their task cut out against him.
Calum MacLeod: The Scotland batter, who has two T20 hundreds to his name, is a big-game player. He has had a quiet tournament so far, and is due a big score. This high-profile match is made for him, and Scotland will want him to get runs against the Indian spin attack.
Dream11 Expert Fantasy Tips
Captaincy pick – KL Rahul
After a quiet couple of games, the India opener was back to his best in the previous match where he scored a quickfire 48-ball 69 against Afghanistan. Expect Rahul to continue his good show against Scotland as well given his career average of 39.2 in T20Is. Not to forget, he was Punjab Kings’ top run-scorer with 629 runs in the recent IPL 2021.
Must-have – Virat Kohli
How can you ignore the India captain in a fantasy team? He is a must-have on any given day. In 2021, Kohli is averaging 74.25 compared to his career average of 52.01. If he decides to come early unlike in the previous match against Afghanistan, he will have ample amount of time to accelerate the innings and accumulate runs.
Ladder situation
If India win, they likely still be fourth because of net run rate, with four points from four games. They will then be keeping a keen eye on the Afghanistan v New Zealand game.
If Scotland win, they will get their first points, but are likely to remain at the bottom of the table.
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What they said
Ravichandran Ashwin, India spinner: “There are hardly any discussions with regards to [the Afghanistan game] because the discussion we need to have is how we’re going to go about the couple of games we have left, and everybody’s planning and wanting to go on a real high for the last two games. The rest of it is not in our control. It’s fingers crossed. It’s a funny game. Afghanistan have played good cricket. A lot of our hopes rest with them as well. All the very best to them.”
Kyle Coetzer, Scotland captain: “It’s a formidable challenge coming up against a very strong Indian team full of exciting players. We’ve got to try to push that to one side, to be honest, and just try and take on the challenges that we face in front of us on the day. It might sound a bit of a cliche, but we have to focus on what we’re really good at and what’s going to give us the best chance of winning the game of cricket. We’ll do our homework on India, as any team will do, and we know the skills they’ve got within their camp. When we go into that game, we can’t fear the players, but we’ve got to respect them. We’ll go in trying to give it everything we’ve got.”
(Source and courtesy: https://www.t20worldcup.com/)