It came as a huge surprise when India benched Arshdeep Singh in favour of Shivam Dube in the first game of the Asia Cup against the UAE. In order to elongate the batting, the Gautam Gambhir-led think tank sacrificed their main wicket-taking weapon, who also happens to be India’s leading wicket-taker in the history of the format!
Arshdeep’s chance came in a dead rubber against Oman, where he visibly looked rusty. After all he was playing his first game for the country after a huge gap of seven month! The left-arm pacer waited for his chances in the entire tour of England where India flew in Anshul Kamboj from India but didn’t give Arshdeep a chance.
Arshdeep Singh’s death bowling masterclass
Regardless, on Friday night, Arshdeep exactly showed why India are missing a huge piece by not playing him in all the games. The left-arm seamer was one of the main reasons why India entered the Asia Cup final unbeaten. He delivered a masterclass in death overs, suffocating Sri Lanka’s innings that initially had all the answers to India’s bowling.
Suryakumar Yadav rested Shivam Dube and Jasprit Bumrah from the playing XI against Sri Lanka. The result of the game didn’t matter but Arshdeep took his opportunity with both hands and showed why he’s one of the best in the business.
After leaking 26 runs in his first two overs in the powerplay, Arshdeep came back quite superbly to win India the game in the death overs. Mind you, despite dominating across all the games, India have had the worst bowling economy in the death overs. That is until Arshdeep played his cards right against the Lankan Lions.
Arshdeep bowled the tricky 17th and the 19th overs of the innings and gave away just 9 and 11 runs, respectively, while also taking a wicket. His plan of nailing wide-line yorkers was quite superb against the Lankan batters, as he put immense pressure. Harshit Rana did his job in the last over as well before the match went into a Super Over.
For Suryakumar Yadav, the decision was simple. He gave the ball to Arshdeep to bowl the most difficult over in a T20 game. But what did he do? Well, he leaked just two runs and got two wickets to bundle the Super Over in just 4 balls. There was a bit of a drama at the end but Arshdeep served the win on a platter before the Indian captain finished the proceedings on the first ball of India’s Super Over innings.
Add Arshdeep and choke Pakistan
Similarly, former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan was highly impressed by Arshdeep and batted for his inclusion in the team. India have surprisingly let Bumrah bowl three overs in the powerplay in this Asia Cup. This has left Hardik Pandya with two mandatory overs at the death. If India somehow add Arshdeep into the mix, you’d have six of the best bowling options in Arshdeep, Bumrah, Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel.
However, in order to have a cushion at number eight for batting, Shivam Dube is keeping Arshdeep out. Kudos to the Mumbai-born all-rounder for impressing too with the ball but the Lankan game showed why he may not be needed as well. Without Dube, India posted the highest score of the tournament. Without Dube, Arshdeep proved to be a goldust for the team. Just replace Harshit Rana with Bumrah and you should be able to choke Pakistan in the Asia Cup final.
“First things first, he’s like an ice. When the pressure is on, he asks for the ball and bowls. In the end overs, he is ready to bowl his yorkers. He bowls yorkers in tandem with Jasprit Bumrah [when both play together]. He is a bowler of that quality. For me, it’s nothing new. I have been saying from the first day that he should be in the playing XI,” Irfan said, speaking on Sony Sports.
“There are situations when you need yorkers from both ends. Today, the match went on till the very end. But, the Indian team’s thinking is that we need a long batting line-up. So, Shivam Dube is playing as an all-rounder. Since he is playing, Arshdeep is not finding a place. He will always be there in my playing XI.”
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