Virat Kohli will be facing the toughest battle of his nascent ODI captaincy career when defending champions India take on South Africa in a do-or-die quarter-final of the ICC Champions Trophy, here on Sunday.
Their confidence shaken after Sri lanka effortlessly out-batted them in a high-scoring encounter, the Indian team, and Kohli in particular, will be keen to ensure that South Africa continue to be known as chokers.
A defeat will have the sceptics blaming the speculated off-the-field issues for the lack of performance. In such a backdrop, Kohli will be under huge pressure with margin of error being next to nil.
For AB de Villiers, it will be an opportunity to prove that self-imposed exile from five-day game has not affected his limited overs skills.
With three quality left-handers — Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and David Miller — in the South African line-up, Kohli can’t afford to keep Ravichandran Ashwin in cold storage.
More so after knowing what can happen to Ravindra Jadeja when there is absolutely nothing in the strip. Ashwin has some natural variations, including the off-break which is his stock ball. The proud performer that he is, he will be smarting after being excluded in the first two games and it can only work positively in India’s favour if he’s in. However, skipper Kohli’s leadership acumen and understanding of the current situation will be under scrutiny depending upon the kind of playing XI he opts for. Ashwin’s entry into the playing XI looks logical but he certainly won’t replace Jadeja as two spinners are likely to play against the Proteas who are known to be uncomfortable against slow bowlers.
The other big factor is Jadeja’s electric fielding inside the circle and the powerful arm from anywhere at the boundary line. Neither can Hardik Pandya be dropped as his pyrotechnics at No 7 is just what is needed from a batsman used as a floater in the order. Jasprit Bumrah is another specialist bowler, who is a certainty in the playing XI with his ability to bowl yorkers at will at the death.
Therefore, it will either be Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Umesh Yadav, who may have to make way for Ashwin.
In the second Powerplay overs during the Sri lanka match, India had conceded over 100 runs, something Ashwin will be asked to check as a marauding AB de Villiers will be itching to score big.
With scores of 319 and 323 in the two games, the batting has a settled look. All the top-order batsmen have got a decent hit, including the opening duo of Rohit-Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan, who conjured back-to-back century partnerships.
With new Powerplay rules, any total of less than 340 can be knocked off with some positive intent in strokeplay.
Kohli is happy with the batting performance but on a practical note, feels that they may need 20 runs of cushion. "May be, we will have to push harder now in the next few games to give us a 20-run cushion after seeing a result like this, because we’re playing on the same ground as well,” the skipper had said after the match.
South Africa batting coach Neil McKenzie agrees that fluency has been an issue for openers of all the teams. “It’s been a little bit of tough going for the openers. The fluency has been an issue. But one needs to adapt according to situations as the conditions here demand little bit of caution. The wickets need to be kept so that one can attack in the back end,” McKenzie said.
On the personal front, Kohli himself would like to lead with the bat against a side that has bowlers like Morne Morkel and all-rounder Chris Morris.
Imran Tahir, whose stock ball is a googly, might just test Rohit’s defence as the Mumbaikar had some trouble reading the wrong 'un from him during IPl.
Squads
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane.
South Africa: AB de Villiers (captain), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), David Miller, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Keshav Maharaj, Farhan Behardien, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwayne Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada.