With most of India’s regular members not playing the ongoing T20I series against Australia, it offers a golden opportunity for players like Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh to showcase their ability in the middle-order.
Though Tilak could not make a big impact in the first match as he got out trying to attack Tanveer Sangha, the youngster felt he would continue to back his strength.
“My mindset was that because a leg-spinner (Sangha) was bowling, I wanted to take charge as we needed ten runs per over. For the fast bowlers, a settled batter in Surya bhai (Suryakumar Yadav) was batting and knew he could (take them). So that over I want to charge (against) the leg-spinner,” said Tilak about his game plan. “I have a role in the team playing at number five, and I have a clear mindset. If it is in my arc, I will go; otherwise, I will rotate,” he added.
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Meanwhile, in a match in which more than 400 runs were scored, Australia’s Jason Behrendorff was the standout bowler with a spell of 4-1-25-1. “I tried to see if there was any swing up front, which there was, and it is my main strength. Then, line-wise, we are trying to be a bit straighter as width in India can travel to the fence pretty quickly,” said Behrendorff.
When asked about the 12 wides his team bowled while trying to bowl the wide yorkers, the left-arm pacer defended his mates and felt the strategy was right.
“It is a fine margin; we are trying to hit the wide line instead of being in the hitting arc. So, it is not a great option to come back to fourth stump on a length because that is a pretty good swinging arc for most batters. We were brave with the wide line, and sometimes it doesn’t go to plan, but on the occasions it did the other night, it was pretty effective,” he added.
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