Experimentation is a word that is frequently used in cricket. Perhaps, on occasion, it is overused. But when India made five changes for the Super Fours game against Bangladesh, it was the only word that came to mind. With India having already qualified for the summit clash of the Asia Cup 2023, it seemed logical that the think-tank would experiment a bit.
Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Virat Kohli were rested. Let’s look at how the fringe players in the squad performed in the inconsequential game.
Prasidh Krishna: The tall pace bowler from Karnataka put up a good performance against Bangladesh. Prasidh, who narrowly missed out on selection for the 2023 World Cup, pounded the deck hard and extracted some bounce. He also mostly bowled within the line of the stumps. He beat the bat quite a few times but didn’t get the elusive edge. The one skill that he can perhaps work on is bowling the wide yorker. Incidentally, in the last over of the innings, he went for 11 runs.
Suryakumar Yadav: Nowadays, most of the chatter on social media platforms is around whether Suryakumar deserved a place in the World Cup squad. Having batted mostly in the middle order, he averages a mere 24.4 after 27 ODI. Unfortunately for Suryakumar and the Indian backroom staff, he couldn’t make the most of his opportunity against Bangladesh, scoring just 26 runs. Had he kept Shubman Gill company a while longer, the result may well have been different.
Yes, he landed a couple of decent slog-sweeps but perhaps tried one too many and was castled by Shakib Al Hasan. The Indian management has backed Suryakumar to become India’s X-factor in the World Cup. However, he hasn’t translated the promise into runs in the 50-over format so far.
Tilak Varma: One for the future, he showed glimpses of his skills with a nicely timed flick shot off Tanzim Hasan. But in the same over, he misjudged an incoming delivery which went on to rattle the timber. All that he could do was trudge back to the pavilion with a puzzled look on his face. The one silver lining for Tilak was that he showcased a bit of skill with his off-breaks. He even forced Shakib to edge one, but KL Rahul fluffed a tricky chance.
Mohammed Shami: One of the most experienced pace bowlers around, Shami is renowned for keeping the seam upright. So, it wasn’t a surprise to see him extracting seam movement with the new ball and also castling Litton Das with a delivery that cut back in a long way. His figures during his first spell read: 4-1-11-1. Despite all his credentials with the new ball, there is still a question mark surrounding his skill-set in the slog overs. It would be interesting to see whether the think-tank gambles on picking Shami in the World Cup based on his new-ball skills.
Shardul Thakur: The seam-bowling all-rounder has taken the most wickets for India (57) in ODIs since the 2019 World Cup. In the game against Bangladesh, he once again showed that he has the knack of taking wickets as he ran through Bangladesh’s top order and eventually bagged three scalps.
With the ball in hand, Shardul can be a mixed bag. He does have the weapons – swing, knuckle ball, three-quarter-seam ball – and at his best, he can bowl at waspish pace. However, he can also turn out to be expensive. Shardul also hasn’t done much of note with the bat in either the Asia Cup or the series against West Indies.