India started the Asia Cup win by defeating Nepal by 10 wickets but captain Rohit Sharma believes that the team is still not playing its best.With this victory, India has qualified for the next round of the tournament. India made a good start in reply to Nepal's 230 runs, but due to rain in the third over itself, the match was interrupted.
Later it was made a 23 over match and with the help of DLS, India got the new target of 145 runs. Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill easily achieved this target without losing any wicket. Gill scored 67 runs on 62 balls and Rohit Sharma scored unbeaten 74 runs on 59 balls.
India's victory in this match can be considered a sure thing, but experts have also expressed concern over the way the Indian bowlers bowled against an inexperienced team like Nepal. Pakistan did not allow Nepal to score even 125 runs.
Indian openers did not fare well against Pakistan but both showed their A-game against Nepal. Gill later said that while Rohit Sharma likes to play in the air, he believes in hitting boundaries, hence their partnership was also good.
Mohammad Kaif said after the match that Shubman Gill did not repeat the mistake of the previous match, in which he was playing very slowly, but in this match he started with three fours and increased his confidence. The Indian team considers the big scores of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill as a good sign because Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan had made big scores in the last match. But bowling still remains an unsolved mystery for the Indian team.
Rohit Sharma also believes that India has not played very well in both the matches. In the first match, the batting came under pressure and in the second match, the bowling was ordinary while the fielding was poor.
A few days ago, while playing against Pakistan in Kandy, the Indian team lost four wickets for only 68 runs. Although later Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan batted well, the team was all out for 266 runs.
The Asia Cup is also a tournament for the Indian team to prepare for the World Cup. But looking at the Indian seamers, it seems that their status is work in progress. Although Mohammad Siraj achieved three successes, but he also spent 61 runs in 9.2 overs and the economy was 6.53.
Whereas Mohammed Shami got only one success in 7 overs. Despite having these two, Nepal scored 65 runs in the first 10 overs. He also lost the first wicket in the tenth over. Indian bowlers gave Nepal's batsmen the opportunity to score fast runs even in the last over.
Hardik Pandya bowled 8 overs and took one wicket for 34 runs in 8 overs. Experts also have an opinion about Pandya – he will not only have to bat but will also have to play the role of third seamer. Sanjay Manjrekar told a situation, which shows the importance of Pandya's bowling.
He said, “Suppose India has to bowl the last over and needs 10 runs to win. At such a time, Captain Rohit Sharma should have the option of more than one seamer. If one of the two seamers has had a bad day today, then Hardik's bowling becomes very important." The player on whom Gambhir is placing his biggest bet in the World Cup is fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah.
The Indian player who was missed the most in the match against Nepal was Jasprit Bumrah. Jasprit Bumrah was not playing in the match against Nepal on Monday because he had returned to India for the birth of his first child. While talking to the broadcaster during the match, Gautam Gambhir said that the one Indian player who has the most responsibility on his shoulders is Bumrah.
Gambhir said, “The most important player for India in this World Cup is Jasprit Bumrah. People remember Tendulkar, or Yuvraj Singh or Dhoni for India's victory in 2011, but the player who ensured the victory for India was Zaheer Khan. Similarly, Bumrah will also be important for India this time.” Gambhir said that if Bumrah bowls well, India's chances of winning will increase and whichever team bowls well, they will have more chances of winning.
On the other hand, former England seamer Dominic Cork believes that the batsmen do the difficult work of scoring runs but the bowlers win the match. “The good thing about Bumrah is that he can bowl at any time – he can open the bowling, bowl in the middle overs and has no equal in death overs.”
Matthew Hayden also believes that Pandya's batting at number 6 takes a toll when he also bowls well and his presence brings balance to the Indian team. As far as spinners are concerned, both Jadeja and Kuldeep bowled well against Nepal. 74 runs were scored in 20 overs of both and three wickets were taken.
While talking about Indian bowling, Hein also said that in the World Cup team, the Indian team can also think about Arshdeep Singh as a left-arm bowler will strengthen the team. The next match in Asia Cup will be played between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
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