ICC World Cup
Every person in the cricketing sphere shall accept the fact that Ireland played out of their skin to win the match against England, rather comfortably. There is absolutely no doubt that nobody accepted them to play that well and perhaps before the World Cup had begun nobody would have given the Irish even the slightest chance to beat a test playing nation. However that notion seems to have changed and that just adds some flavor to the Ireland vs India tie on the 6th March.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly emphasized on the fact that India must be ready to take on the Irish team. In the words of Ganguly, “India is the better side when it comes to the two, but they must be ready and up for the challenge that Ireland will provide them with.”
He further adds, “Ireland has some outstanding players, chasing down England’s target with ease and Kevin O’Brien giving an outstanding performance so India will have to be up and ready for it.
India will have the chance to review their bowling attack – as to whether they go with three fast bowlers or continue with two spinners and two seamers, which I don’t think is the way forward. They need three fast bowlers and then have someone like Yusuf Pathan bowling his ten overs.”
On being asked if India should reconsider taking Sreesanth into the side, the Sourav says “Of course he should come back into the scheme of things…just the same way the other players took a beating… you cannot just pick and choose players on the basis of one bad performance. But if you ask me at the start of the World Cup which are my best three seamers… it would be Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel. So if the three are fit then the three should play and if any one of them is not fit then Sreesanth should come in, that is provided if India wants to play three quick’s.”
On being asked what Ireland need to do, he says” They can keep continuing playing as good as they did. Not every day they will be chasing 327. So they need to be careful about that. It’s going to be another good wicket in Bangalore….so we expect another high scoring ground(match) and I’m sure they’ll compete with India.”
When asked if he does expect a high scoring match and what should be India’s approach the commentator turned cricketer says “ It just seems from the outside that the sid3e batting second enjoys the conditions well, the ball skids on to the bat , the ball travels on to the bat . India can also look at putting Ireland in and chasing if they go in with seven batters and with Harbhajan at eight. So these are the options.”
Tags: Ashish Nehra, Cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India, Ireland, Munaf Patel, World Cup, Yusuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan
