3rd T20I: With no Hazlewood around, Indian batters can breath easy
_vb_49.jpeg)
Hobart (PTI): The Indian batters will breathe a little easier in the absence of Josh Hazlewood as they look to put up an improved performance, but the baffling omission of left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh continues to raise eyebrows ahead of the third T20 International against Australia on Sunday.
Hazlewood's pinpoint accuracy when it comes to hitting the right length, coupled with disconcerting bounce that he always generates around the corridor of uncertainty did become a bit of a nightmare for the Indian batters.
With the Ashes Test starting at the end of this month, Hazlewood has been given a break to rejuvenate before the gruelling five-Test series. He won't be part of the remainder of the series.
"It would obviously be a relief. I have never faced such bowling," star opener Abhishek Sharma had said after the Melbourne game as he seemed to be in awe of the Aussie speedster.
And his absence would also mean that Indian batters, who have serious technical flaws in dealing with bounce and seam movement, will feel a bit more assured while facing the likes of Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis or Sean Abbott.
Both skipper Suryakumar Yadav and skipper-in-waiting Shubman Gill have had problems negotiating deliveries with extra bounce and good degree of seam movement. Surya and Gill would like to revisit their opening game's playbook when they looked in ominous touch at Canberra.
The Bellerive Oval at the Hobart is one ground where the side boundaries are smaller in size and hence the length would be paramount considering anything short would be flying over cover, point, square leg or mid-wicket on either side of the fence.
Bellerive Oval is the ground where the phenomenon of Virat Kohli as a champion ODI batter took shape back in 2012 when he played a masterful knock of 133 not out in 86 balls against Sri Lanka in a chase of 321. Bellerive Oval track has traditionally been a belter for white ball games.
This is also the BBL home ground for pacer Ellis, who happens to captain local franchise Hobart Hurricanes.
Curious case of Arshdeep Singh
The Indian team management's obsession with batting depth has been a topic of discussion on this tour and some of the batting failures like a paltry total of 125 at the MCG does question the merit of such a strategy.
On a pitch with extra bounce, India went in with three spinners and once again Arshdeep didn't find place in the playing XI despite being the only Indian bowler with 100 T20I wickets.
"If Jasprit Bumrah is playing, then Arshdeep Singh's name should be second on the list. If Bumrah is not playing, Arshdeep Singh's name would be first on the list," Ravichandran Ashwin had said on his Hindi YouTube channel and he couldn't have been more blunt.
In fact, a look at the statistics suggests that often India's No. 8 in the past 15 to 20 games has faced an average of five balls per innings and hence whether it is a viable option is being questioned repeatedly.
There is a school of thought that when one stacks the team with too many batter, each one at the top of the order feels that there is someone who is coming after me and the approach is more cavalier on tracks which warrants a bit more discretion while batting.
Even if one considers that Harshit is a capable batter, which he certainly is, some of the numbers during the second game would certainly be an eye opener.
Harshit scored 35 off 33 balls, with three fours and a six.
If one takes out 18 runs scores through boundaries in four balls, the beefy all-rounder from Delhi managed 17 off 29 balls and at one stage wasted deliveries keeping Abhishek Sharma stranded at the other end.
It is now understood that Harshit features firmly in head coach Gambhir's plans and is a non-negotiable entity as far as current playing elevens are concerned but his bowling has been inconsistent to say the least.
But at Hobart, where the open area on one side will aid swing bowling, India would do well to think of sacrificing one spin bowling option at the altar of playing Arshdeep.
Squads:
India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott (games 1-3), Xavier Bartlett, Mahli Beardman (games 3-5), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis (games 4-5), Nathan Ellis, Glenn Maxwell (games 3-5), Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, and Marcus Stoinis
Match Starts at: 1:45 pm IST.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
