IND v SL: I Expect Them To Go With Three Spinners - Wasim Jaffer Says Sri Lankan Bowlers Will Pose More Problems For India
Published - 23 Feb 2022, 06:05 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:05 AM
Former India opener Wasim Jaffer has opined on the upcoming three-T20I series between India and Sri Lanka which begins on February 24 with the first match to be played at the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Ekana in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Jaffer said that he expects the Sri Lankan spinners to cause trouble more than West Indians did.
India clean swept West Indies in their recent T20I series, but during the matches, West Indies spinners did a good job of slowing down the run rate for the Indian team in the middle overs. Jaffer expects the Sri Lankan spinners to do a much better job than what the Windies counterpart did.
In the third T20I between India and West Indies, India was reduced to 93/4 in 14 overs and it was only due to the brilliance of Suryakumar Yadav (65) and Venkatesh Iyer (35*), as they added 91 runs in 37 balls to take India to a formidable 184/5.
Sri Lanka Will Definitely Go With Two Spinners: Wasim Jaffer
With the first match of the three-match T20I series to be played at the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Ekana in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, which is a big ground, Wasim Jaffer expected Sri Lanka to field more spinners than West Indies in Kolkata.
“I think their spinners especially will pose a problem. We had seen in the last series against the West Indies that Roston Chase had done really well in not letting the Indian batters get after him and put the brakes in the middle overs,” said Jaffer in a video on ESPNCricinfo.
“So Sri Lanka will definitely go with two spinners, but I expect them to go with three. You might see this because we are playing in Lucknow, which is a big ground, so you don’t mind playing three spinners, something which is their strength. So I definitely think they will pose a lot more problems than the West Indies,” he added.
However, Sri Lanka will be without their no.1 spinner in Wanindu Hasaranga, who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus on arrival in India and will miss the entire T20I series. Hasaranga had already tested positive for COVID-19 on the Australia tour, and he missed the last three T20Is.
