World Cup 2019: One brave change India should make against England
On Sunday, as India take on England in their seventh league game of the tournament at Edgbaston and there is one brave change that India should be looking at to stabilize their lineup.
Coming into this match, India has remained the only unbeaten team so far and England have suffered back to back losses against Sri Lanka and Australia. Thus this match is all important for both the teams for their semi-final qualification. A win here will confirm the berth for India and will take England one step closer towards the same.
In the two matches played so far at Edgbaston, the wickets have been dry and on the slower side. The average first innings score is 241. Considering how the ball turned in the recently concluded New Zealand versus Pakistan match, India should make that one brave change by playing Ravindra Jadeja in place of Vijay Shankar.
So far in this tournament, Shankar has returns of 15*, 29 and 14 with the bat and 2/22 against Pakistan with the ball where he had to bowl as Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was injured. Apart from that Virat Kohli has hardly used him as a bowling option.
On Sunday, on a pitch where the ball is expected to grip and turn, Jadeja should be in the playing XI. Now that means India have three quality spinners and a handy lower order batsman as well. MS Dhoni or Kedar Jadhav can bat at number four depending on the match situation.
Jadeja has taken 9 wickets so far in the five ODI matches he has played in Edgbaston at an average of 20.56 and an economy of 4.36. That is the most wickets by an Indian at this venue and eighth in the overall list of wicket-takers at Edgbaston. Moreover, Jadeja is one of the best fielders in the world both inside the circle as well as on the boundary line. He can be handy with the bat at number eight as he was against New Zealand in the warm-up fixture.
As we enter the business end of the tournament, with repeated use, the pitches in England are getting worn down and playing three spinners might be key to choke England, as they have struggled to score in slow pitches in this tournament.
The pressure is on England to win both matches in order to safely qualify for semi-finals. India must make this one brave change and use the pitch and ground conditions to their favour in order to make it tougher for England and remain unbeaten in the tournament.
Also read – World cup 2019 highlights
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