For Afghanistan, a win against the fancied Indian side will be a great end to the tournament.
Business
Standard : The Indian cricket team will hope that its
untested middle-order gets some game time ahead of the grand finale
when it takes on an ever-improving Afghanistan in the final 'Super
Four' encounter of the Asia
Cup 2018 on Tuesday.
India
have been on a roll after an unimpressive start against Hong Kong,
with couple of one-sided victories over arch-rivals Pakistan and an
equally facile one against Bangladesh.
With
a spot in Friday's final sealed, skipper Rohit Sharma may want some
of his untested middle-order batsmen to get quality time in the
middle against someone of Rashid Khan's calibre.
Often
in cricket, the 'Law of Averages' catches up with the best performing
teams at a critical juncture.
Shikhar
Dhawan (327) and skipper Rohit (269) have done the bulk of the
scoring in the four matches so far with very little contribution
being required from the other batsmen in the line-up.
The
next highest scorer is Ambati Rayudu (116 runs) because he comes in
at No 3.
The
problem has been lack of batting time for the likes of Mahendra Singh
Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav and Dinesh Karthik so far.
Sample
this: Rohit and Shikhar have so far faced 284 and 321 deliveries
respectively. The next best Rayudu has played 162 balls.
However,
Karthik (78 balls), Dhoni (40 balls) and Kedar (27 balls) can be
found wanting if there is a top-order collapse on the big day.
Rohit
had given Dhoni an opportunity to come in at No 4 against Bangladesh
and the former captain scored 33 runs. But it was a pressure-free
situation.
Dhoni's
achilles heel of late has been to keep the scoreboard ticking in
pressure situations that the middle-overs throw up.
If
the likes of Rashid Khan and Mujeeb ur Rahman can put pressure, it
will be a good warm-up for the middle-order trio before the final
match.
The
Indian captain might fancy batting first in case he wins the toss,
which in turn will give his team a chance to bat 50 overs instead of
chasing another modest total.
The
Indian bowlers have been splendid on the slow Dubai International
Stadium track with all the bowlers enjoying an economy rate of less
than five runs per over...Read
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