India scored 188/8 in the first innings against Oman.
It is not every day that you see Suryakumar Yadav not walking out to bat in a T20. However, September 19 happens to be that day. The Indian skipper did not make his way out to bat in their fixture against Oman.
India posted a competitive 188/8 in the first innings after Suryakumar won the toss and decided to bat first. The decision to bat first came on the back of India having chased on both occasions in this tournament. Going into the Super Four, the team would be in good standing, knowing their potential in the first innings.
Though the total they got to is competitive, the Men in Blue did not have the start that they would have liked. Vice-captain Shubman Gill was dismissed with the team total at six runs. The dismissal occurred in the second over of the match. However, Sanju Samson’s composed knock of 56 was what carried India through the middle-overs. Abhishek Sharma’s quickfire 38 and Tilak Varma’s robust unbeaten 29 steered India well past 180.
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The Indian skipper was seen padded up in the dugout. However, despite regular wickets falling, he never came out to bat. The reason behind the move was to test India’s batting depth. As a result, the likes of Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh were promoted to bat above Suryakumar Yadav in the order.
“From our batting point of view, our batters didn’t get a lot of game time, starting from Sanju [Samson], Hardik [Pandya], a lot of them, Axar [Patel], even [Shivam] Dube. Tilak [Varma], also against Pakistan didn’t get a lot of time to bat,” Yadav said.
Speaking ahead of India’s Super Four clash against arch-rivals Pakistan, the Indian captain explained the rationale behind sending specialist pacer Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh to bat in the last overs, who might not get the chance to bat going forward in the series.
“Harshit [Rana], as you may know, he’s someone who can bat. So we wanted to see how he can bat in the last 3 or 4 overs, and when 1 or 2 overs were left, Arshdeep said that he wanted to go into bat. I said No problem, you can definitely go in. It’s completely fine, but I bat or I don’t bat, winning the game is more important,” he commented.
However, Suryakumar clarified at the toss that they would like to test the batting depth of his team. But Social media and cricket pundits shared mixed opinions on the decision. A certain group argued that Suryakumar should have taken charge at the crease, while others praised the captain for giving game time to his players going into the business end of the tournament.
India managed to get to a competitive 188-run total on the board, the joint highest of the ongoing edition with Afghanistan. In reply, Oman batters put up a great show, forging a couple of big partnerships that kept themselves alive in the hunt till the last over. It was Aamir Kaleem and Hammad Mirza who scored fifties, giving Oman a hope to pull off a miracle. But a stunning catch on the boundary line by Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep’s final over effort saw they falling 21 runs short of the target.
Indian skipper, impressed with Oman’s efforts, gathered the opposition players and shared his two cents with them after the match. A gesture that got plenty of lauds from the cricketing fraternity, including Oman’s captain Jatinder Singh.
India will take on Pakistan in the Super Four clash on September 21. Next up, they will face Bangladesh on September 24 and Sri Lanka on September 26.
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