Virat Kohli will be eager to lead Team India on to another win against Scotland, following a tremendous performance against Afghanistan.
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Team India skipper Virat Kohli has opted to field after winning the toss in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021 encounter against Scotland, who are led by Kyle Coetzer. The Indian team needs to ensure a win at any cost to stay alive in the race for the playoffs. However, they will need to be wary against Scotland who can be quite difficult to negotiate on their day. The same was certainly visible in their recent triumph against Bangladesh, where the former delivered a quality performance to win hearts.
Kohli has stated that his decision to field was influenced by dew, which according to him would play a big factor in determining the final result. The team management has gone with one change to proceedings as Shardul Thakur makes way for spinner Varun Chakravarthy.
“We are going to bowl first. Dew is going to be a big factor. Try and restrict them and chase it down. Winning my first toss on my birthday, probably we should have played the first game on my birthday (smiles). The intensity from ball one is important. For us, it’s just about keeping that intensity on for 20 overs. That’s something we expect from people. Shardul makes way for Varun – third spinner,” said the Team India skipper as quoted by Cricbuzz.
If Scotland score 160, India need to chase it down in 11.3 overs to get their NRR to +1.000. If they chase it down in 7.4 overs, they can get their NRR past that of Afghanistan.
Coetzer stated that he was happy with the deck, adding that it could go either way.
“Looks a good deck. Happy to go either way. First of all great occasion for us and Scottish cricket and the associate game. We are playing against some of the best players from the world here and in the last couple of games too. India is another special occasion for us. We have got to go out there, enjoy ourselves and try and express ourselves as much as possible. Same team,” he said.
Lineups:
Scotland (Playing XI): George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer(c), Matthew Cross(w), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Safyaan Sharif, Alasdair Evans, Bradley Wheal.
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.
Team India thrashed Afghanistan by a margin of 66 runs in their T20 World Cup 2021 encounter on Wednesday. The Virat Kohli-led side showcased prowess in all departments to pull off a significant triumph, which keeps them alive in the race for the semi-finals. Openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma were simply magnificent, scoring breathtaking half-centuries to help the Indian team post a total of 210 runs for the loss of two wickets. The bowlers delivered a fantastic performance themselves, chipping in with wickets at regular intervals to restrict Afghanistan to a total of 144 runs for the loss of seven wickets.
