Former India cricketer Suresh Raina expressed that Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be the ‘go-to-guy’ for the Indian team in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja in T20I World Cup campaign.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with IANS, Raina opined that with Mohammad Shami and Axar Patel coming in place of Bumrah and Jadeja, the Indian team looks good but would need to have the right combinations.
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Raina said, “Though they have got injured, we still have got their replacements. I know you can’t replace them because, at the end of the day, you need to only think about the controllable things. Definitely, Shami comes in now and Axar Patel is also doing well. You need to have the right combination and which player you want to go with."
Raina, who has a vast experience of the international games and big tournaments, believes that Bhuvneshwar will do really well in Australian conditions as the conditions there, will help his knuckleball and variations.
“Bhuvi is an experienced bowler. He has done really well. Sometimes you go for runs, but he still has that swing. He is still the go-to guy for the skipper because he always delivers when it mattered the most. When Virat scored a hundred, he also took five wickets against Afghanistan and bowled really well. He has that knuckleball, swing and he hits areas well
Once you get that line and length, he knows how to execute those plans and he will do really well there because Australian conditions will give his knuckleball and variations help. Alongside Arshdeep and Harshal, Bhuvi will help them with his extra experience and will do really well for India," said Raina.
The former cricketer further stated that India’s decision to go early in the tournament was quite good as it would have helped the team to asses the situation.
“I would say the team is looking good now. They have gone to Australia very early, so they must be going through a lot of good processes and how to tackle the other teams. Sometimes it’s good to go early and can assess the situation and learn about it," Raina added.
India’s batting has been in a very good form in recent times and Raina also feels the same. In big tournaments like World Cup, teams require all-round performances and thus Raina said that along with bowling, if batters will have a fearless intent to bat then things will be at the right place for India.
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Raina said, “We have Suryakumar Yadav, then Rohit Sharma is a very good leader, Virat is in very, very good form now and Hardik Pandya will be the key member of the Indian team. He will bowl a couple of good overs in power-play, then he has to bat really well."
“Then you have Arshdeep Singh, (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Yuzvendra) Chahal. The KL Rahul-Rohit Sharma partnership will be crucial and you need to have that fearless intent to bat, then I think everything will fall into place," he added.
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