Key points
- Abhishek has three consecutive ducks
- India stress flexible batting approach
- Spin attack key to India’s plans
ISLAMABAD: India captain Suryakumar Yadav has thrown his support behind out-of-form opener Abhishek Sharma, urging him to continue playing his natural attacking game ahead of their Super Eights clash against South Africa in the T20 World Cup.
The two unbeaten sides meet in Ahmedabad on Sunday in a repeat of the 2024 final, which India won. While South Africa, led by Aiden Markram, have impressed across departments, India’s batting has lacked consistency, with Abhishek registering three successive ducks.
“People who are worried about Abhishek’s form, I worry for them,” Suryakumar said with a smile.
“I think about those teams against whom he is going to fire as he has not been able to score till now. When he gets the runs, then you know how it is.”
Suryakumar emphasised that the team backs the left-hander to maintain his aggressive approach.
“It is a team sport, it happens. Team requires him to play with his identity, so if he fires it’s okay, otherwise, we are there to cover for him. Last year he covered for us, now we will do it for him.”
India’s spin attack
Despite expectations of towering totals at the start of the tournament, scoring has been relatively restrained. Ireland’s 235 against Oman remains the highest total so far, while India’s best effort has been 209 in a dominant win over Namibia.
“We are trying to explode from the start because everyone knows their T20 template, but we don’t want to become a team that’s always blasting away,” Suryakumar said.
“There could arise a situation where two-three wickets fall early and we have to be a smart team to bat well between 12-15 overs and we have enough firepower that if the base is strong then we can smash 60-70 runs in last five overs.”
India’s spin attack, spearheaded by world number one Varun Chakravarthy, has claimed nine wickets in four matches, while South Africa’s slow bowlers, including Keshav Maharaj, have also made an impact.
“The (Indian) spinners have done well against almost all oppositions, (but) I can’t say we will have an edge,” Suryakumar said.
“It’s a new game and we start from zero. But definitely some good plans. On the given day, plans and execution should be coming together, if that comes together we will definitely have an edge.”
India head into the contest unbeaten in 12 T20 World Cup matches, a run stretching back to their 2022 semi-final defeat to England.
