India's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni plays with a soccer ball during a training session ahead of their ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup match against West Indies in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, March 22. (AP Photo)
March 23 | 15:00 Australia Vs Pakistan
March 23 | 19:00 India Vs West Indies
MIRPUR, March 22 (PTI): Their sagging morale lifted after a thumping win over Pakistan, Indian spinners will now have to brace up for the ever-dangerous Chris Gayle when the team squares off against defending champion West Indies in its second match of the ICC World Twenty20 Championships on Sunday.
A victory against Pakistan was just the kind of shot in the arm that was required before facing a team that has world's most devastating T20 batsman in Gayle. While a rampaging Gayle can take away the game at any point of time with his blazing bat, the Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja will definitely pose a few problems for the 'Jamaican Marauder'. Gayle has minimum footwork as he believes in stand and hit technique. With Ashwin successfully employing a round the wicket technique to bottle up batsman and Mishra inviting him to come out by flighting his deliveries, it will be a challenge for Gayle to devise a counter strategy.
While spinners will hold the key, Dhoni would also expect that Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami don't bowl length balls to Gayle as it has a chance of consistently landing in the stands.
However, Indian bowlers will also have to deal with an attacking batsman like Dwayne Smith, who has the ability to hit over the in-field consistently during Powerplay overs.
Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels are also capable enough to destroy any bowling attack on their day. While Samuels might take some time to settle down, he can effortlessly shift gears as he had shown some 18 months ago during the last edition's final at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The Indian batsmen had an easy day in office against Pakistan with a smaller target to chase. But both Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma would also do well to get a big score under their belt. The two openers got good starts yesterday but failed to convert them into big scores.
Dhawan's perennial problem against the short ball was again exposed as Gul got him with a well-directed bouncer. The left-hander's habit of not having proper balance while playing the hook shot has been causing his downfall. Rohit, on the other hand, had played some fantastic shots including a six over long on off Umar Gul. But as has been his problem, he wasted a good start trying to play a cut shot to a sharp off-break from Saeed Ajmal.
