Melbourne, Oct 31
Former Australia captain Aaron Finch weighed in on India's playing eleven composition following their four-wicket defeat to Australia in the second T20I at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, adding that he would be very surprised if left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh isn't back in the playing eleven for the third game in Hobart on Sunday.
Inserted into batting first, India's innings never quite recovered from a top-order collapse triggered by Josh Hazlewood, whose sensational spell of 3-13 ensured the visitors were four down in the powerplay.
Despite a counter-attacking effort of 68 from Abhishek Sharma, India failed to regain momentum as they were bowled out for 125 in 18.4 overs, which Australia chased down with 40 balls remaining to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
"Arshdeep Singh should be in the team. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't make it back for the next game. One thing I've learned about T20 cricket, when you go in with too many batters, sometimes the responsibility gets diluted," he said.
"Batters subconsciously assume someone else will get the job done. But if you play one fewer batter, it's amazing how often the rest step up. India clearly has the World Cup in mind, and this series is part of that process of finding the right combinations to win that tournament," said Finch on JioStar.
He also assessed India's bowling effort in the second T20I, adding that a few more runs on board would have made things easier. "The first over that Bumrah bowled was really good and gave the Australian openers some headaches. But after that, Harshit Rana went for a bit of punishment, Travis Head did most of the damage early on, and then Mitchell Marsh joined in later."
"There just weren't enough runs on the board for the bowlers to defend. It wasn't a massive shortfall in target, but a few extra runs could have made things very interesting," he added.
On the batting front, Finch praised Abhishek Sharma's knock of 68 and his composure under pressure, though he felt strike rotation in his partnership with Harshit Rana could have been better.
"This was one of Abhishek Sharma's better innings in terms of the composure he showed. Batsmen like him force you into a corner. And when he gets on a roll, it's almost impossible to stop him," he added.
"And batting with the lower order is not easy; they find it hard to rotate strike. They'll be able to swing the bat. They'll be able to find boundaries. Rotating strike is not one of their strengths, and that's what we saw when Abhishek and Harshit were batting, and I think that'd be one area that India will look back on."
"But I thought Mitchell Marsh also captained exceptionally well to make sure that Abhishek was stranded down the other end for a lot of that first innings," he concluded.
- IANS
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