India will have a huge task at hand to decide their bowling combination for the T20 World Cup game against Ireland. The Men in Blue will kick-start their campaign by facing off against Ireland on June 5 at the Nassau County Cricket stadium in New York. It will be interesting to see if India will rely more on spin or pace for the game, given the sluggishness of the pitch at the venue that they got to witness first-hand in the warm-up game against Bangladesh.
Which way should India look – spin or pace?
Pacers made the most of the pitch in the warm-up game against Bangladesh while spinners hardly managed to find success. India’s pace attack comprises of Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh while Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube are the bowling all-rounders.
While Bumrah is the obvious pick to spearhead the pace attack, it will come down to a battle between Arshdeep Singh and Siraj to determine who would be the second pacer for the side. The former would be a good option for India, considering he is a left-arm bowler with ability to bowl variety of deliveries.
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In the spin department, India has plenty of options – with Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav the side’s obvious first-choices. India have the option of going with a spin-heavy attack if they chose to drop Shivam Dube and include Axar Patel instead, leaving the side with three spinners and two full-time pacers. Dube seemingly fared well in the warm-up match, picking two wickets for just 13 runs at 4.33. Meanwhile, Axar went wicketless while conceding 10 runs in the game.
