Dubai: The kind of precarious situation they are in, Team India will look to repeat their extravagance to keep their hopes alive in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup when they lock horns against Scotland in a must-win match here on Friday.
Luckily, India have Scotland as their opponents as cricket experts around the world are expecting another spectacle from them with an aim to improve the net run rate in a wild hope that New Zealand lose one of their last two games.
India are still in the hole due to the thrashing they received from Pakistan and New Zealand in their first two games, though India pulverised Afghanistan in their last encounter to improve their net run rate.
Therefore, India's star performers need to press the pedal to keep the team in the hunt with Pakistan having already qualified for the semifinals with four straight wins and New Zealand being tipped to storm into the last-four from Group 2.
But an upset win by Namibia or Afghanistan, could spoil the dreams of New Zealand qualifying for semifinals, provided India latches on to the opportunity and grinds Namibia to register a better net run rate than the Kiwis.
However, India would like to focus on what is in their control. As of now, they have one more chance to register a big win against Scotland, especially after Rohit, Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant, finding their brutal form against Afghanistan.
Rohit hit top form in the last match. He hit a classy 74 runs and added a match-winning 140 runs for the first wicket in association with Rahul, after he suggested to team management to demote him to No.3 against New Zealand, but it did not work out in the middle.
This ominous avatar of Rohit is a bad omen for India's rivals in next matches. Also ominous are Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, as they are yet to fire in this event. And, skipper Kohli is as always dangerous for any opposition. His 51 against Pakistan showed him in good stead at least.
Dangerous also are Indian bowlers. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin came off good in the previous match. He maintained tidy line and length and picked up two wickets and conceded just 14 runs in stipulated four overs.
Also, Indian pacers looked ominous. Pacers Mohammed Shami bagged three wickets and Jasprit Bumrah also was among wickets. They will be looking to repeat their performances against Scotland.
After their deadly display against Afghanistan, India is unlikely to make any changes to the squad, unless there are some physical issues with players.
For Scotland, there is nothing to lose as they already are out of the semifinal reckoning.
Teams:
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravichandran Ashwin
Scotland: Kyle Coetzer (c), Richie Berrington, Dylan Budge, Matthew Cross, Josh Davey, Alasdair Evans, Chris Greaves, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt, Bradley Wheal.
Match starts at 7:30 PM IST. (UNI)
