Sachin Tendulkar credits IPL for India's strong bench strength

Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar has credited the Indian Premier League for developing a strong bench strength for the side. Tendulkar said that the IPL has helped the current lot to play against some world-class players.

The new recruits Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan have stamped their authority with the bat after both the players have notched up individual fifties during the on-going T20I series against England. “Yeah, both Surya and Ishan are ready to play, because you know, I have always felt that IPL’s introduction has helped players,” Tendulkar told PTI.

Suryakumar began his innings with a maximum after pulling a short one from Jofra Archer over the fine leg boundary. Tendulkar while mentioning Surya added that the IPL has created an opportunity for the Indian players to take on the international players and have a better understanding of their game.

“With the help of IPL, I mean, yesterday I was watching the game, and Surya was batting and (Jofra) Archer bowled to him and Ben Stokes and the commentator said that it is nothing new for Surya because he has already played against Rajasthan Royals,” he said.

“Both Archer and Stokes play for Rajasthan Royals, so it is nothing different and he (Surya) knows what they do and he has played against them already. So, it wasn’t first time,” he added.

While Ishan notched up a half-century in his very first outing for India, Yadav scored a fifty in his second match in the Indian colours. Both the batsmen have been an integral part of the Mumbai Indians setup in the IPL.

The wicket-keeper batsman Kishan who began his IPL career with Gujarat Lions and then made a shift to MI has played 51 matches in the cash-rich league so far scoring 1211 runs at a strike-rate of 136.83. Yadav has played for KKR in the early editions of the league and is now a part of MI line-up. The right-handed batsman has played 101 matches in the IPL and has scored over 2000 runs at a strike-rate of 134.57.

The five-match T20I series is levelled at 2-2 with the fifth and final encounter to take place on Saturday in Ahmedabad.

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'Feels surreal': Prasidh Krishna on receiving maiden India call-up

Karnataka and Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Prasidh Krishna received maiden India call-up on Friday for the ODI series against England. Krishna was one of the three players alongside Krunal Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav to get selected for the three-match ODI series. The fast bowler expressed his delight and tweeted, “Feels surreal when you get the call to play for your country. It's like a dream come true. Excited to play my part and contribute to the success of the team. Thanks @BCCI. Can't wait to get started.” Prasidh has played 48 List A matches and has 81 wickets to his name while has scalped 18 wickets in 24 IPL matches for KKR. Suryakumar Yadav who was earlier picked up for the T20Is against England stamped his authority with the bat after scoring a fifty in the fourth match in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Yadav scored 57 off 31 as India posted 185/8 in 20 overs and later restricted the visitors to 177/8 to win the match by 8 runs and level the series. The fifth and final T20I will be played on Saturday at the same venue. The ODI series is slated to begin on March 23 in Pune. All the three matches will be held in Pune itself. Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur.

Why there can’t be ‘I don’t Know’ call by the umpire: Virat Kohli argues

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has argued that the on-field umpires should have the option of not making a soft signal during a controversial decision. Kohli's opinion comes after Suryakumar Yadav's controversial dismissal in his debut innings when he was caught at deep square leg by Dawid Malan off the bowling of Sam Curran. Yadav, batting on 57, pulled Curran to the deep square where Malan claimed a clean catch and umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan gave a soft signal of 'out' for the third umpire to cross-check. The third umpire Virender Sharma, even after going through multiple reviews, described the evidence as 'inconclusive', and even though there were a lot of doubts that it was a clean catch, the umpire couldn’t overturn his decision as the evidence remained inconclusive. Giving the example of how he as a captain has always appealed on catches that he is not sure of, Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that the umpire should just confirm it from the third umpire instead of giving a soft signal as out or not out. “If it's a half-and-half effort and the fielder's in doubt, I don't think the umpire from square leg would see that clearly and, you know, make a conclusive call. So the soft signal becomes that much more important and it's a tricky one,” he told Star Sports. Reasoning that other teams could bear the brunt of the soft signal in future as well and comparing the soft signal to the Umpire’s call during LBW, Kohli said, “I don't know why there cannot be a sort of 'I don't know' call for the umpire as well. Why does it have to be a conclusive one? Because then that [dictates] the whole decision completely. Similar to the argument we have about umpire's call as well." The 32-year-old further said that instead of complicating things with soft signals and the Umpires’ call, the game should be kept simple and linear for the viewers and also to avoid wrong decision making in high-pressure games. “So you want these things ironed out as much as possible, keep this game simple, keep it linear, have one set of rules which are not grey areas which we don't understand sometimes, and sometimes we do. So it's not ideal, especially in a high-pressure game that has a lot of things riding on it, a lot at stake. It's important to have a lot of clarity on the field," he added.

Rohit Sharma asked me to back my instincts: Shardul Thakur on last over exploits

India pacer Shardul Thakur was given the opportunity to defend 23 runs off the last over against England in a do or die game for India in the 4th T20I of the five-match series. Shardul, who had bowled up until then, was trusted with the responsibility by stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma. However, the match almost turned on its head as Shardul gave away 13 runs off the first three balls, including two wides. However, he did not lose his cool and came back strong to finish the game, conceding just one more run in the last three balls. The Mumbaikar credited Rohit for trusting him and giving him the freedom to back his instincts. “I am enjoying my game as I am bowling in the situations where the batsmen are looking to go hard at us. In the last over, Rohit asked me to back my instincts and remember that one side of the ground was longer than the other,” Thakur was quoted as saying by TOI. Talking about his plan for the last over, Thakur, 29 said, “There was a lot more dew in this game, which wasn’t true for the last three games. They were going to go hard at us in the last over and I had to bowl at least a few dot balls.” The ball was changed after the first ball of the last over, when the dry ball came, Archer hit two boundaries, a six and a four to bring some spice in the game. Reasoning that the dry ball worked well for the English batsmen, Thakur said, “As the slower ball was landing in the slot, it was getting easy for them to pick the slower bouncer. That is why I tried to ball it wide and away from the batsman.” Shardul Thakur finished with the figures of 2-43 in his four overs spell and was one of the most important reasons behind India's win as he removed two dangermen Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes in two consecutive balls. With this win at the Narendra Modi stadium, the Indian team has levelled the series 2-2-2 making the final game a mouthwatering clash for the fans.

England welcome pressure of must-win games in preparation for World T20

Although England would have loved winning the series against India in the fourth T20I itself, they are not too disappointed at the prospect of playing an all-stake decider to win the series. The series has been used as a building block for the T20 World Cup by both sides, with England skipper Eoin Morgan stating that playing high-stakes games will do the team a lot good leading into the big tournament. "We really want to play in must-win games like this. They're the closest thing that we get to playing in a World Cup or a Champions Trophy and against a fantastic side like India, it should bode to be a great game,” Morgan said in the post-match presentation. All-rounder Ben Stokes echoed the skipper's viewpoint when he said that there will be pressure on both the tourists and the hosts as let-ups in the final game will see them losing the series. He said that England are desperate to win this series in order to keep the winning habit going, however, winning from crunch situations will make England a richer side in terms of experience going through such circumstances before the T20 World Cup. "In an ideal world, we would have loved to have gone into the next game already won the series. We go into the next game with a huge amount of pressure on our shoulders as a team, because whoever wins that game wins the series. That's great for us as a team, especially with a T20 World Cup coming up because the more pressure situations we get put into as a team the more, I think we'll benefit from it." Stokes said. "It is a final because if we don't win then we lose a series and we don't want to lose series, we want to win and we want to make a habit of winning them. The more situations we get put into where we've got pressure on us and we keep prevailing, that's just going to do us the world of good," he added. England could not chase down the target of 186 set by India in the fourth T20I to face a loss for the first time as the team batting second and the all-important decider will be played at the same venue Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.