• Home
  • Cricket News
  • T20 World Cup Bruised India Look To Test Bench Strength As Namibia Aim To Add Insult To Injury

T20 World Cup | Bruised India look to test bench strength as Namibia aim to add insult to injury

So the World Cup’s group stage is finally coming to an end and it might not be the right way to end with a non-impact game as the result of this game won’t matter to anyone anywhere apart from the two teams involved in this game. 

While at one end there is India who have got literally nothing to play for apart from the fact that they can test their bench strength and give a somewhat accommodative farewell to Virat Kohli in his last game as the blue brigade’s T20I skipper. On the other end, there is Namibia who have everything to play for and end what has been their best-ever showing on a world stage. 

What's at stake?

For India, there is obviously pride to play for. And along with it, there is also the opportunity to let the likes of Rahul Chahar have an experience of seeing what it is like to play in a World Cup. Other than that, Virat Kohli, who hasn’t really had a great outing with the bat so far can also promote himself as there is no burden of net run rate now. Playing freely should be the idea that team India could incorporate. 

For Namibia, there could be a no bigger opportunity than this one to show what they are made of. They did well against New Zealand and Pakistan and even won a Super 12 game by beating Scotland. If they have an impressive outing against India, which is not necessarily a win, but just to have great moments, it will go a long way in giving them the belief that they could do well. 

What needs to change?

As far as India are concerned they would like to finish the game as soon as possible but that wouldn’t be at the cost of not giving youngsters such as Ishan Kishan and Rahul Chahar a chance to play. This match is dead by all means for India and they wouldn’t be losing anyways so why not give young players a feel of what it is like to play at the biggest event of them all.

For Namibia, it would once again come down to their batting. The bowling of the team has been brilliant apart from the death overs against New Zealand in their last game, but it is the batting that has disappointed. In the first round, it was the batting of the likes of skipper Gerhard Erasmus and experienced David Wiese that got the team through in two tough games against Ireland and Netherlands and even in the Super 12 against Scotland. 

But since then the two players have not been able to get going and in the last match, it would only be fitting that they go all out with the bat. 

India vs Namibia: Match Details

Match Number - 42

Date and Time: November 08, 2021, 07:30 pm IST, 06:00 pm Local, 02:00 pm IST

Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

Broadcast and Livestream: Star Sports and Hotstar

Pitch Report

The pitch at Dubai has overtime shown that it has some help for spinners early on, but as it gets wet in the second innings, there is literally nothing that the bowling unit can do and prevent a team from chasing down the total. Thus dew becomes a very undue advantage for the team batting second. 

Weather Forecast

The temperature at the stadium will fall from 28-degree Celsius at 06:00 pm to 25-degree Celsius by 10:00 pm and similarly, the humidity will increase from 51% to 65%. With such a huge amount of humidity, heavy dew is expected as well. 

Team News

India

The Indian team can rest Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin for this game and give Ishan Kishan and Rahul Chahar a chance. 

Probable XI

KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

Namibia

Namibia can bring back Jan Frylick who is a sure shot all-rounder and as an experienced member of the team, he would be looking to play such a big game as this. 

Probable XI

Stephan Baard, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (c), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Michael van Lingen, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz

CE XI Fantasy team

Wicketkeepers Ishan Kishan

Batters KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Gerhard Erasmus

All-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, David Wiese, JJ Smit

Bowlers Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ruben Trumpelmann

Vice-Captain Ravindra Jadeja

Captain KL Rahul

Discover more
Top Stories
news

T20 World Cup 2021 | New Zealand bury India’s hopes; seal professional win against Afghanistan

Kane Williamson-led team sealed their place in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup after defeating Afghanistan by 8 wickets in Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. On a hot Sunday afternoon, New Zealand chased down a paltry 125 runs, courtesy of steady contributions from all of their batters in a sticky wicket. After a decent start from Martin Guptill (28 off 23) and Daryl Mitchell (17 off 12), it was the captain Kane Williamson, who took control of the scoring. He anchored his way through the innings and scored 40 off 42 balls while building an important partnership of 68 runs with Devon Conway, who contributed 36 off 32 deliveries. Both players saw through the danger overs of Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan and played the ball on merit. They punished short deliveries from the spinners, making sure that they were always on track with the run-rate. Things could have been drastically different though if Hamid Hassan would have appealed on an absolute corker that seemed to have just missed Devon Conway’s bat en route to keeper Mohammad Shahzad in the 11th over of the game. Conway was on three runs at that point of time. Neither the bowler nor the keeper seemed to have known about the edge and ‘ultra-edge’ later covered the incident. At the end, the Kiwis went comfortably over the line with 11 balls to spare. Earlier in the day, the foundation was laid by the New Zealand pace trio of Adam Milne, Trent Boult and Tim Southee, who reduced the Afghan top order to 19-3 inside the powerplay. They were very accurate with the short ball ploy slipping a full length here and there as a change up. Trent Boult was the wrecker in chief for the Kiwi side and removed key men - Hazratullah Zazai (2 off 4), Karim Janat, (2 off 2) and Najibullah Zadran (73 off 48) who was taking the game away from NZ. Barring Mitchell Santner, who went for 27 runs off his 2 overs, all NZ bowlers were on the mark with their lengths and kept their economy rate below 6.5 RPO. Tight lines and back of the length bowling meant that the Afghan bowlers, barring Najibullah Zadran, could not get away and kept falling like a pack of cards, desperately trying to play their shots. The bowling unit was aided incredibly by the fielding effort from the players who saved several chances in the boundary ropes. With the win, NZ secured eight points to become the second team to qualify from Group 2. They will most likely qualify in second place for the semi-finals and would have to face England, who are looking like the team to beat at the moment. Speaking after the game, Kane Williamson spoke highly about the effort his bowling unit put in to restrict the Afghan top order. He further stated that his team will be focused on their next assignment and acknowledged that England are a great side and it would be tough to beat them.