Against Australia, in the T20 World Cup warm-up game on Wednesday, Virat Kohli was seen guiding young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar to get rid of in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Glenn Maxwell. India defeated Aaron Finch and company by nine wickets at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai.
Kohli was rested and was only called to bowl against Australia as his deputy Rohit Sharma led the team. Following Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s stunning opening spells, the Aussies were reduced to 11/3. Maxwell and Steve Smith then stitched a half-century stand before Rahul Chahar got the prized wicket of the former.
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It was the 12th over when in-form Maxwell slammed Chahar for a boundary on the first ball off a reverse sweep. Post that, Kohli was seen having a chat with the bowler, who then delivered three consecutive dot deliveries. On the fifth ball of the over, Maxwell did not read the wrong ‘un and the went for a sweep. The ball went past the bat and hit the off-stump. He was dismissed for 37 runs off 28 balls.
Watch how Virat Kohli guided Rahul Chahar:
India chased down a 153-run target with 2.1 overs to spare. The captain for the match Rohit Sharma (60 retired off 41) showed sublime touch alongside opening partner K L Rahul (39 off 31).
Suryakumar Yadav (38 not out off 27) came at number three in Kohli’s absence and got valuable time in the middle which should boost his confidence going ahead.
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Hardik Pandya (14 not out off 8) came at four to finish the game and he did it with a clean hit over the bowler’s head.
Another plus for India was seasoned pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar finding rhythm after a poor outing against England. India had also beaten England in their earlier practice game.
The batting department looks more or less settled and the five specialist bowlers also inspire confidence but the same can’t be said about the extra bowling option with Hardik not bringing his all-round skills to the table at the moment.
“Hardik is coming along pretty well, but it’ll be a while before he will start to bowl. He hasn’t started bowling, but he should be ready by the start of the tournament,” said Rohit at the toss for the warm-up match against Australia.
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The team management is hoping he will be ready to bowl during India’s World Cup campaign which begins with the marquee clash against Pakistan on Sunday.
Skipper Kohli kept things tight with two overs of medium pace but to expect him to do the job in high-pressure scenarios would be asking for too much from him.
