With the clock ticking down to Team India's first Super-8 match against Afghanistan in Group 1 of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara on Thursday offered a valuable piece of advice to Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team will face Afghanistan in the Super-8 match in Barbados' Kensington Oval on June 20.
Lara opined that though both Virat and Rohit are aggressive players, one of the Indian openers can drop anchor on the Caribbean pitches to give the team a solid start.
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Speaking to Star Sports ahead of India's next match, Lara said, “I think there is all sorts of possibilities. They are two very aggressive players. They're two world-class players. But sometimes, in terms of putting together a partnership in the Caribbean, you think well, you know 60-70 runs in the powerplay would be a great start. I think one could afford to drop anchor, but it all depends, you know, on match-ups."
"If you feel that, as a batter, that you are better equipped than the other player to do well against a bowler, then you do that. So I think it's a conversation that has to happen in the middle, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to go from both ends,” the Windies icon noted.
Lara's advice assumes significance, as Rohit and Virat added only seven runs for the first wicket during the Group match against Ireland at New York's Nassau County stadium.
The former West Indies batter pointed out that Virat and Rohit's opening partnership would decide the fate of the match against Afghanistan, as India have a 3-0 track record and would like to make it 4-0 in the T20 World Cup.
“But you know, I think psychologically they would know how important both of these players coming into form quickly is for that. So, there are different ways of going about it. I don't feel blasting away in the Caribbean is one of the things you know. You just need to think about what you're doing and put a good partnership on because you know more often than not when you're playing Afghanistan than you're thinking, When are the spinners coming? Then the contest begins,” Star Sports quoted Lara as saying.
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India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, and Jasprit Bumrah.
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (captain), Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, and Fazalhaq Farooqi.
