In India vs New Zealand T20 WC match, focus on Rohit Sharma vs Ish Sodhi

India will be taking on New Zealand in a Super 12 group 2 match of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup in a virtual do-or-die encounter. The match that will be played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium will see the two behemoths of the game aiming to bounce back after losing against Pakistan.

The Indian top-order was completely done in by Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi, a left-arm pacer. This time around, India are well prepared for the Trent Boult threat, who is also a left-arm pacer.

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While the India cricket team has their focus on Boult, they will have to be wary of the New Zealand spin attack, led by Ish Sodhi.

Ish Sodhi is the leading wicket-taker against India in T20Is (17 wickets in 12 matches).

He has also been in brilliant form in 2021. He has picked up 19 wickets in just 8 T20Is.

As for Rohit Sharma, who will be in focus, his T20 numbers have dipped since 2019. He averages 29.85 in 22 matches. However, there is still a plus point.

He is India’s leading run-getter against New Zealand in the shortest format of the game, with 338 runs in 13 innings. This includes four half-centuries and a high score of 80.

Who comes out on top remains to be seen in a high-octane clash for both teams.

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What Virat Kohli said at the pre-match conference:

  “It [toss] will continue to be a big factor and that’s the nature of this tournament. You can look at this situation in two ways – either you can bank too much on the toss or you can challenge yourself as a team to say okay even if we lose the toss, we’re good enough to bowl or bat in any conditions and that should be the attitude.”

“You don’t have time in the shortest format of the game to think too much about what happened at the toss. The game goes away from you pretty quickly, and 2 or 3 overs can change the whole course of the game as we saw in the last game as well,” the Indian captain added.