Big challenge for India in Super 8! Finger spinners and left-handers top order make it easier for opposition teams, know what Ten Deutsche said

Ahmedabad: Indian team assistant coach Ryan ten Doesch agreed that the opposition teams’ right strategy for the top order with left-handed batsmen and the struggle of the batsmen against the finger spinners will be the two important issues for India in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup. Deutsche told reporters after India’s win in the final league match against the Netherlands that the title contenders have not yet played a single match in which they have completely dominated. India’s top three batsmen include Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Verma. All three are left-handed batsmen and Deutsche admitted that this has made it easier for opposition teams to strategize against them. Rival teams are using off-spinners in the powerplay to contain the top-order batsmen, including Abhishek Sharma.

Abhishek has not even been able to open his account in three matches in this tournament, whereas till some time ago he was in the best form of his career. Netherlands off-spinner Aryan Dutt bowled three overs in the powerplay on Wednesday and dismissed Abhishek and Kishan. Deutsche believes that India need to make major improvements in their game against finger-bowling spinners. The home team will have to find a way to deal with finger-bowling spinners in the Super Eight matches against South Africa, Zimbabwe and West Indies.

He said, “This has made it easier for the teams to make strategies against India. We don’t have much choice in the top three. We have Sanju Samson sitting on the bench and looking at the upcoming matches, if we look at the finger spinners, we will face New Zealand in this matter.

“We have some bowlers who bowl finger spin,” Deutsche said. West Indies and South Africa also have such bowlers if we include Markram. But overall we feel that he is our best batsman and we will do with more left-handed batsmen in the team.

Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus had baffled the Indian batsmen with his round arm off-spin bowling in Delhi, after which Pakistan’s Usman Qadir, Salman Aga and Sime Ayub managed to put pressure on the Indian batsmen in Colombo. Deutsche said that the batsmen will have to find a way to play against the finger spinners when the ball is coming a bit intermittently.

Talking about the areas of improvement in the next phase of the T20 World Cup, Deutsche said, “I wouldn’t say off-spin, I would say finger spin. If you talk about statistics, I think Pakistan bowled 14 overs to finger spinners in the last match. My guess is that he probably took four wickets and gave away 78 runs. These are not good figures.” Deutsche said, ”In the next three matches also we will have to face finger spin bowling and looking at that I think we will have to pay attention to it.”

India will take on South Africa in their first match of the Super Eights here on Sunday. “I think you won’t see that (batsmen struggling against spin) on better wickets,” Deutsche said. You can hit the ball with more confidence, but we have to make a strategy for the places where the wickets are stable and there are opportunities to hit fours and sixes. We have to make a strategy to deal with that threat.” Considering India’s struggle against Pakistan, Netherlands had also planned to put India under pressure with the spin bowlers in the powerplay.

Netherlands’ Bas De Leede said, “We watched the match against Pakistan and found that they were having trouble with the spin bowlers. So we relied on spin bowlers in the powerplay and tried to limit their options to score runs.” Abhishek Sharma has not been able to open his account in three matches so far but Deutsche is not worried about the form of this opener.

Deutsche said, “A day before the match against Netherlands, Abhishek batted very well in net practice. He batted for 90 minutes. I think we need to give them some rest as well. In between he was not feeling well. I am not worried about his form. He is ready to play in the upcoming matches.