Asia Cup | Takeaways: Bhuvneshwar Kumar's impeccable length and Opening 101
BCCI
India continued their winning streak at the Asia Cup with yet another comprehensive win, this time over Bangladesh, with skipper Rohit Sharma leading the way this time. However, this game will be remembered more for Ravindra Jadeja blowing away Bangladesh's batting lineup like a house of cards.
Bangladesh not doing enough homework to tackle India’s Vitamin-B
While the lack of rest would definitely be a complaint on Bangladesh’s part, they can have no excuse whatsoever for their lack of preparation for India. There has been no swing in UAE conditions and it was well established when Pakistan bowlers struggled to get it. Hence, coming to the Super four stage after two group stage games, Bangladesh should have had a clear idea what Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were doing under such conditions. But, the Indian bowling had almost identical success against their new-age rivals as they had against the age-old ones in the last match.
While using the short ball effectively could be credited to Bhuvneshwar, the biggest part of the blame would go to the batsmen playing terribly. Bhuvneshwar’s last three-wicket haul - Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, and Hasan Ali, all came from either good length or short of good length. And he didn’t have to do differently today as the same tactics brought an early end to Liton Das and Mahamadullah today. Bangladesh was, at one point, so clogged up by his length balls that Bhuvneshwar had to get in a silly-mid-off to force them to open bat after getting 17 dots in his first four overs.
Ravindra Jadeja’s inclusion a masterstroke by India
With Virat Kohli opting to sit out of the tournament, the last thing India needed was to lose an all-rounder who would be, again, difficult to replace. Hence, the three players called upon after the group stage game against Pakistan, Deepak Chahar, Ravindra Jadeja, and Siddharth Kaul, were in no way to maintain the balance in the squad but to just fill a void. But, the management did a brilliant job in turning the injury concern and challenging conditions to their advantage.
While most had thought Khaleel Ahmed to get the nod for his previous exploits against Hong Kong, getting Jadeja to start just after arriving last evening was the last thing on everyone’s mind. But, given the slow pitch in UAE, his selection actually made a lot of sense and after he started garnering wickets in quick succession, his efficacy was soon realized. The spinners’ added ability to eat up overs in the middle before the struggling Bangladesh batsmen even realized, also helped India’s cause massively. It was difficult as it is to get settled on a slow pitch and Jadeja’s lightning quick overs added more pressure on the batting side to score in the face of depleting balls. The wild card has paid off and India might well be seen going with the same eleven for the rest of the tournament.
Rohit Sharma lays a template for openers in Asia Cup
While Virat Kohli might be the best batsman in the world in limited-overs cricket, when it comes to the art of pacing an innings, Rohit Sharma comes very close. Most of the openers in Asia Cup have struggled to find their way out of the challenging conditions and the mystery of the first power play, but one look at Rohit Sharma and one would know how to execute it to perfection. After his quick-firing knock of 52 off 39 balls helped India win the match against Pakistan, he finished the match himself today by scoring 83 off 104 balls.
However, unlike most other openers, Rohit doesn’t try to exploit the fielding restriction of the first ten overs. In fact, his strike in the first powerplay prior to the Pakistan match was just 77.35. Today, too, he had just 21 runs off 39 balls in the 15th over and he only started accelerating in the 16th over when he was
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