India eye another series win even as concerns loom over
India may be sitting comfortably on a 1-0 lead but between the long journey across the diagonal from Trivandrum to Guwahati, they’ve come face to face with the growing possibility that talisman Jasprit Bumrah might not be available for the World Cup, or at least for parts of it. Disappointing as the news of the injury might be, India has had a taste of what it is to play without their pace ace. Bumrah has featured in only 5 of the 33 T20Is India has played since the last T20 World Cup.
Arshdeep Singh, whose young shoulders are set for a load far greater than one envisaged, has shown that he is up for a challenge, at either end of a T20 innings. The other seamers will have to share the burden but the onus will now be on Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid to earmark new roles for the lot, especially when they go to the hard, drop-in surfaces of Australia with lesser swing assistance. There isn’t much time left on the drawing board. These two games and two warm-up fixtures in Brisbane stand between India and the start of their World Cup campaign.
South Africa has an identical number of games left and on evidence of Wednesday’s performance, has some chinks to iron out despite their hugely impressive form in the format over the last year. While they don’t necessarily have similar worries as their opposition does, they’ll hope the Trivandrum batting show was a one-off and not an indicator of a bigger malaise.
