IND vs PAK: 3 Indian Players Who Can Be The Villains Of Indian Cricket Team Losing To Pakistan In T20 World Cup 2022 Opener

IND vs PAK: 3 Indian Players Who Can Be The Villains Of Indian Cricket Team Losing To Pakistan In T20 World Cup 2022 Opener. The venue of the 2022 T20I World Cup tournament in Australia. India will play their opening match of the T20I World Cup 2022 on October 23 against Pakistan at Melbourne Cricket Ground. India is part of group 2 in the tournament with teams like Pakistan, South Africa, and Bangladesh in their pool.

The last time the two teams met at the 2021 T20I World Cup, Pakistan had beaten India by 10 wickets in their Super 12 match in Dubai to register their first-ever win against their neighbours in World Cups. Babar Azam hit an unbeaten 68, while Mohammad Rizwan smashed an unbeaten 79. Pakistan pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled a terrific spell of 3/31 with three prized scalps of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli.

India’s Initial Squad for T20I World Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh

Standby players – Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar

But out of those 15 players that were selected in the main squad, the team’s star pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, was later ruled out of the entire tournament due to a back injury. The pacer, who was out of action since July 14, made his comeback after more than two months on September 23 in Nagpur against Australia, but after playing two matches, he again suffered an injury, as a result of which he will not feature for India in the 2022 T20I World Cup.

In his place now, India will select another pacer and senior fast-bowler Mohammed Shami is leading the race, while others like Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Siraj are also in the fray. Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar were already part of the four-man reserves list, while Mohammed Siraj’s name is also doing the rounds because of his experience of playing in Australia.

Mohammad Shami is set to replace injured Jasprit Bumrah in the Indian squad for the upcoming ICC T20I World Cup 2022 and will be joining the squad soon which has already landed in Perth, Australia where the tournament will begin from October 16 onwards.

IND vs PAK: 3 Indian Players Who Can Be The Villians Of Indian Cricket Team Losing To Pakistan In T20 World Cup 2022 Opener

KL Rahul

KL Rahul gave a superb performance in the previous T20I series against South Africa. He smacked 108 runs in 2 games and shattered half-centuries in both matches. He was also the second-highest run-getter for the team in the series after Suryakumar Yadav (119). He scored 51* off 66 balls in the 1st T20I and 57 off 28 balls in the 2nd T20I as India won both games. He was rested for the 3rd T20I.

However, he failed to deliver in the preceding Asia Cup 2022 where he managed only 132 runs averaging 26.4 in 5 T20Is and in the subsequent series against Australia where he managed 66 runs averaging 22 in 3 T20Is. He had a good T20I World Cup 2021, but he scored only 3 off 8 balls in the opening fixture against Pakistan. He went on to score 3 fifties later but failed to do well against Pakistan and New Zealand, as a result of which India was eliminated from the group stage.

His T20I stats against Pakistan are also substandard and another poor show in a losing cause will brand him as a villain. In 3 T20Is against Pakistan, he has scored only 31 runs with 28 of those coming in the Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 game. He had departed without scoring in the group stage. He averages 10.33 in T20Is against Pakistan.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Concerns have been raised over Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s death-over bowling. He leaked 19 runs in the penultimate 19th over against Pakistan and 14 runs against Sri Lanka, costing India matches during the recent Asia Cup 2022. He was hammered for 52 runs and went wicketless in the first T20I against Australia in Mohali.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, bowling his final over in the crucial 19th over of the game against Australia, gave away 16 runs, which essentially sealed the fate of the match. Overall, Bhuvneshwar Kumar finished with the figures of 4-0-52-0, the worst amongst all India bowlers. He picked 1/39 in 3 overs in the 2nd T20I but didn’t feature in the Proteas T20I series for going to NCA for strength and conditioning work.

He had a good Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan where he picked 5/4 and in the opener against Pakistan where he picked 4/26. But he went for runs in the games where it mattered most- Super 4 matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Another poor outing could brand him as a villain.

Harshal Patel

Harshal Patel missed the Asia Cup 2022 due to a rib injury. After his35 comeback in the T20I series against Australia and South Africa, he has been too expensive. He had also picked too few scalps. In 3 T20Is against Australia, he conceded 99 runs in 8 overs and picked only 1 scalp averaging 99 at an economy rate of 12.38.

Against Proteas, he picked 2 scalps in 3 T20Is averaging 60 and conceding runs at an economy rate of 10. A poor outing against Pakistan in the 2022 T20I World Cup-his maiden WC could see him marked as a villain, especially if India loses.