Virat Kohli and co have made a horrible start to their ICC T20 World Cup campaign lately. In their opening encounter, India lost to arch rivals Pakistan by 10 wickets on Sunday. Earlier, India had never lost a World Cup match to Pakistan. The men in green won their maiden World Cup match against India in 29 years and rewrote history.
The fans were not expecting a defeat like this as India won both their warm-up matches against England and Australia.
Team India are scheduled to take on New Zealand on 31 October at Abu Dhabi. Skipper Virat Kohli will now have to make some tough calls specially in the playing XI.
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Here are two changes Team India should make in the game against New Zealand on Sunday.
1) Shardul Thakur in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was picked for the high voltage game only on the basis of the experience he holds as he has represented India in so many big occasions in the past. However, the right arm seamer was not in a good form lately. He conceded 25 runs in 3 overs against Pakistan. The momentum shifted right from the first over as the Pakistani openers smashed two boundaries.
Shardul Thakur should be replaced with Bhuvneshwar in the upcoming game against New Zealand. Shardul Thakur has proven his worth previously while playing for Chennai Super Kings. Thakur is an experienced middle over bowler. He also comes up with a good batting ability. Thakur is a pinch hitter and can score runs in the end if needed.
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2) Ishan Kishan in place of Hardik Pandya
All-rounder Hardik Pandya hasn’t played much games lately owing to injury problems. Hardik is also not bowling right now due to injury issues. However, the all rounder promised that he will start bowling once the tournament progresses towards the knockout stages. Since Pandya is not bowling now it almost makes him a batsman instead of an all-rounder.
Ishan Kishan is the batsmen who might replace Hardik in the upcoming game against NZ. Ishan Kishan is also in a good form as we all saw in the warm up match against England. While opening the innings in the match against England, the latter scored 70 runs off 46 deliveries and remained unbeaten. Ishan might not get his preferred batting position which is opening the innings, but he might get to bat early whenever the middle order is exposed quite early like it happened in the game against Pakistan.
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