Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has outlined the challenges that the Indian team will face in the Super 8s of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
Rohit Sharma’s Men in Blue will face Australia, winner of Group B, and Afghanistan and Bangladesh, runners-up in Groups C and D. They will try to reach their second consecutive semi-final of the T20 World Cup, after having lost the 2022 one against England during the edition that took place in Land Down Under.
The Indian team will also try to reach its first T20 World Cup final since the 2014 edition, when it finished runners-up behind the Sri Lankan team. Since then, India have appeared in two of the three semi-finals and it will be interesting to see if they can get past the semi-finals and reach the final.
Rohit Sharma has a good chance of becoming the first captain since MS Dhoni to win a major ICC silver medal. He could have achieved that feat last year if the Australians had not denied him in the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup final. But with the new year, there is new hope that Rohit can finally quench the thirst of a million Indian fans.
Ahead of India’s Super 8 matches, inaugural World T20 winner Irfan Pathan made some suggestions.
Irfan Pathan’s game plan against Afghanistan
Irfan Pathan asked the Indian team to come up with a solid batting plan against Afghanistan’s potent bowling attack. Pathan feels that Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya will have to play a crucial role with the bat. He singled out Surya specifically because he has the talent to play well against spinners.
Pathan also expected Virat Kohli to score runs but feels the batting stalwart will find a way to get runs under his belt.
“Having a good plan against the Afghan bowling line-up is very important for the Indian team. At the same time, I think Suryakumar Yadav will have a crucial role to play because they have a lot of good spinners and Surya has a variety of shots against bowlers. slow bowling.”
“Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja should also be able to bat well, and I hope that happens. Virat Kohli should also be able to score and he is the kind of player who will find a way out.” – Pathan told Star Sports.
As for Bangladesh, Irfan Pathan stated that Shakib Al Hasan specifically could be a threat and so would the underrated pace attack.
Aggressive batting against Australia
Last but not least, India’s biggest threat is Australia. Irfan Pathan believes the Australians could have an added advantage because they played all their group matches in the West Indies, while India played in the United States. To dismiss them, Pathan feels that the batsmen will have to bat aggressively as in the bowling department, the Jasprit Bumrah-led department can outperform them.
#TeamIndia They will have to be careful with the characteristic challenges they face in the of different teams in the Caribbean 👀@IrfanPathan wants @surya_14kumar, @imVkohli and other batsmen to face Australia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to progress further 💙… pic.twitter.com/e2Qm4Vuuic
– Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 18, 2024
“Then comes the Australian challenge. They have a proven team, they come with a lot of all-rounders and they have the added advantage of having played in the West Indies before India. Showing aggression and batting aggressively against them will be very important and in terms of pins, we can definitely knock them down.” – concluded Irfan Pathan.
