India’s coach, Gautam Gambhir, has indicated he’ll hold England guessing about the deployment of star quick bowler Jasprit Bumrah forward of Thursday’s T20 World Cup semi-final.
Bumrah, extensively considered the world’s premier all-format paceman and the solely bowler in the high 10 of each Test and T20 rankings, has been used flexibly by India all through the match.
In Sunday’s ultimate Super 8s recreation in opposition to the West Indies, he bowled only one over in the powerplay earlier than delivering his remaining three later in the innings, ending with two for 36 in Kolkata.
Gambhir defined this strategic method was tailor-made to counter the West Indies’ highly effective middle-order, confirming {that a} horses for programs technique would proceed in opposition to England.
“We knew that West Indies has got a lot of firepower in the middle, those guys can take the game away from us,” Gambhir said. “So we always knew that we needed someone like Bumrah to bowl at them. That’s the reason why we felt that Bumrah was important in the middle.
“So every time we have a big over, we can go back to Bumrah and try and control the game. I think Bumrah is a banker and we’ll continue to use him in different ways.”
India secured their semi-final spot by chasing down a difficult 196 in opposition to the West Indies, with Sanju Samson anchoring the innings with a composed 97 not out.
While India comprehensively defeated England by 150 runs in their final T20 encounter 13 months in the past at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium – the venue for this week’s semi-final – Gambhir cautioned in opposition to drawing direct comparisons.
“One thing is very clear that bilateral (matches) are very different to World Cups,” he added.
“The pressure is different, the competition is different, obviously the stakes are much higher. (England are) a world-class team, they’re a quality team, they’ve got a lot of quality players as well.
“Hopefully we can keep ticking all the boxes which is going to be important because we will need a special effort to beat a quality side like England.”
