"They don’t want to take the conservative option"- Former Indian cricketer backs Men in Blue's fearless approach against Pakistan in T20 World Cup
Former Indian pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji believes the Men in Blue are firm favorites to win their T20 World Cup 2024 encounter against Pakistan in New York on Sunday, June 9. One of the main reasons Balaji reckons that's the case is how Rohit Sharma and his men selected their playing XI against Ireland.
The former pacer loves the idea of Virat Kohli and Rohit opening the batting as it allows the Men in Blue to pack their lower middle order with all-rounders and have explosive middle-order batters at the cost of not playing Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Speaking to Firstpost, here's what Balaji had to say about India's mindset this T20 World Cup:
"Their mindset is very clear, they don’t want to take the conservative option of getting in Yashasvi Jaiswal and putting Virat Kohli at number three. That would have been conservative but I like the way they started the campaign with the aggressive mindset, having three all-rounders, batting till eight, six bowling options, five top-order batters and Virat and Rohit batting and taking that chunk in the front."
Laxmipathy Balaji believes the biggest match-up in the mega encounter would be the star-studded opening combination of Rohit and Virat against Pakistan's quality pace attack. The games in New York have also shown that the pacers get decent help up front.
This Indian team is capable of handling emotions: Balaji
Balaji claimed that having had enough experience of playing against Pakistan himself, he feels it is more about handling the pressure of the occasion and believes Rohit Sharma and Co. have the character to keep the nerves under control.
On this, he opined:
"Having played plenty of cricket against Pakistan, it is going to be about emotional handling. This Indian team is capable of handling emotions. So this is one way there’s a little bit of edge. Toss is going to be very crucial as the pitch is playing a little bit of here and there.”
Pakistan need an inspirational performance to topple India as Babar Azam and his men are coming off a disappointing outing against the USA, losing in the Super Over. Rohit and Co, on the other hand, will know that they cannot let Pakistan's pacers dominate them and will want to dictate terms from the get-go.