T20 World Cup 2022: 3 Player Battles to watch out for in IND vs BAN match
The Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup has reached its business end with Team India taking on Bangladesh in a crucial encounter at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, November 2. Both teams have two wins from three games and know that they can't afford a slip-up if they want to make it to the semifinals.
Rohit Sharma and his men received a reality check against South Africa as there are quite a few issues they need to address, especially in their batting. Bangladesh, on the other hand, beat Zimbabwe in thrilling fashion in their previous game.
Captain Shakib Al Hasan has also said in the pre-match press conference that India will be under pressure to avoid an upset against Bangladesh, adding more spice to the contest.
Match-ups are a crucial part of T20 cricket, even more so when qualification for the next stage is on the line. On that note, let's take a look at the three player battles to watch out for from this encounter:
#3 Najmul Hossain Shanto vs Arshdeep Singh
Regroup. Refocus. Refresh.
See you, Adelaide.🇮🇳 https://t.co/sZiTED85YP
Najmul Hossain Shanto was the star of Bangladesh's crucial win over Zimbabwe as his 71 set the tone for his team by taking them to a competitive total. While he will look to make full use of his rich vein of form, India will hope Arshdeep Singh makes the ball talk upfront once again.
Arshdeep seems to love bowling to the left-handers in the powerplay. In 11 innings, the left-arm pacer has already picked up the wickets of eight left-handers inside the powerplay, with as many as 34 dot balls.
With rain around and possibly overcast conditions, Arshdeep will back himself to exploit any moisture on the pitch and put Shanto on the backfoot straightaway.
#2 Suryakumar Yadav vs Shakib Al Hasan
Shakib Al Hasan said, "Suryakumar Yadav is India's best T20 batter".
Shakib stated in the pre-match press conference that Suryakumar Yadav is India's best T20 batter at the moment. He definitely understands the threat that 'SKY' brings to the table for the opposition. However, the Bangladesh captain might also know that Yadav doesn't necessarily like facing left-arm spinners.
SKY has a strike rate of 128.30 against left-arm spinners in T20Is, which is pretty modest by his lofty standards, and has also been dismissed thrice. Moreover, Shakib has the wood over Yadav in T20s, conceding just 28 runs from 31 balls and also dismissing the swashbuckling batter once.
This is nicely set to be an intriguing match-up as Yadav won't hold back from playing his shots and Shakib will be wary of it.
#1 Rohit Sharma vs Taskin Ahmed
Rohit Sharma has the most runs against Bangladesh for India in T20Is history.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma does have a fifty to his name, but hasn't quite hit the ground running in the T20 World Cup. However, he loves facing Bangladesh in ICC events, having already scored two hundreds against them in the past.
Having been quite vocal about the attacking brand of cricket that India wants to play, Rohit will probably look to cash-in on the powerplay and take the attack to the Bangladesh bowlers.
This is where Taskin Ahmed will become crucial for Bangladesh. He has already picked up eight wickets from three games and if he gets the Indian captain early, Bangladesh could then put even more pressure on KL Rahul and others.