It will be important for the Indian team management to sort out the selection dilemma between KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan ahead of the Asia Cup ‘Super-4’ match against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday, September 10. The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team will face Pakistan for the second time in the Asia Cup on Sunday. The Indian team management is focused on the team goals but at the same time they want to field their best 11 players against Pakistan. But for this they will need to find an answer to the Rahul-Kishan selection conundrum and also hope that rain does not hamper the match, for which Monday has been kept as the controversial ‘reserve’ day.
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Rahul’s return to the squad has increased the ‘pool’ of players for selection but will also be a pleasant headache for India. Because Kishan has impressed everyone with his performances in the last month or so, with four fifties in four matches. Three matches against West Indies and one against Pakistan were played in Group A matches of the Asia Cup in Pallekele last week.
During this period, Kishan has shown ease from opening the innings to batting at number five. The 25-year-old from Jharkhand opened the innings against West Indies while he came in the middle order against Pakistan. Kishan is a left-handed batsman, so this has brought some variety to the Indian batting order.
Looks like everything is going well for Kishan. But it is also difficult to ignore the claim of fifth-ranked Bengaluru cricketer Rahul when he has not played a single ODI match since March this year due to a thigh injury and post-surgery ‘rehabilitation’.
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The reason behind this is that Rahul has been one of India’s strongest ODI batsmen since 2019. He scored 572 runs in 13 matches at an average of 47.67 in 2019. Even after this, his good performance continued. In 2020 he scored 443 runs in nine matches at an average of 55.38, in 2021 he scored 108 runs in three matches at an average of 88.50, in 2022 he scored 251 runs in 10 matches at an average of 27.89 and in 2023 he scored 2023 runs. Scored 226 runs in six matches at an average of 56.50.
If we take a closer look at these figures, batting at number five, Rahul has scored 742 runs in 18 matches at an average of 53, including a century and seven fifties.
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These figures look very strong and his wicket-keeping also adds an extra arrow to the vibration. On Friday, he was seen taking intensive wicketkeeping practice, indicating his preparations for a comeback. The team management has to take this difficult decision on the day of the match.
This decision is very important in terms of the balance that the team wants because whatever combination they field for the match, it will be very important for them to register a win in the ‘Super Four’ match.
Pakistan beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in Lahore and secured two points. One more win will easily take them to the finals. India will also want to add to the table but will have to face Pakistan’s deadly bowling attack as they are able to bowl impressively despite the nature of the pitch.
Certainly Rohit and other Indian batsmen will be wary of Shaheen Shah Afridi’s pacey bowling but other bowlers in Pakistan’s bowling unit are equally lethal. With his pace, Haris Rauf leads the Asia Cup bowling charts with nine wickets (in three matches) and looks set to surpass Afridi (seven wickets). Naseem Shah also has seven wickets and that too will not give relief to the rival batsmen.
On paper Pakistan look strong in the bowling department but India are also confident that they have a strong bowling attack to counter attack. Indian bowling will be strengthened by the return of Jasprit Bumrah, who was unable to play in the league match against Nepal. Mohammad Siraj and Shardul Thakur can play the supporting bowler role. But when both teams take to the field, playing eleven, form, past records, all these factors become irrelevant. It will be a stormy clash between the two teams on the field.
The teams are as follows.
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Irish Krishna.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (capt), Abdullah Shafiq, Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr. , Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Saeed Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir (Travelling Reserve).