The home team is not left with many choices after losing two successive games in the ongoing T20I series against South Africa. The third T20I will start on Tuesday in Vishakhapatnam. India will have everything on the line when they head into the third game. So they have to go with their best players in the squad. A few changes are expected in the team.
Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan feels that India should go with the extra pace and give Umran Malik the chance in the third match. The Kashmir-born pacer has also performed really well in the recently concluded season of the Indian Premier League. He bagged 22 wickets in just 14 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Zaheer reckons that the extra pace will come in handy for the home team against the Proteas. In a discussion on Cricbuzz, the former pacer said that the tendency is towards Umran Malik. He also pointed out that in the IPL, the 22-year-old also took the wicket of David Miller, coming around the wicket and with really good speed.
The former pacer also highlighted that the boundaries are small at the venue of the next game, ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. So it will be a big challenge for the spinners to contain the batter, so in that case, the pacers will have a bigger role.
Zaheer concluded, “You need to have that X-factor, something different, which will, maybe, have that impact. We might see a quick bowler coming in. I am expecting that one change purely because the ground is small.”
Notably, Umran has already bowled the third fastest delivery in IPL history. He bowled a ball at a speed of 157 km/h against the Delhi Capitals. He also bowls at a consistent pace of over 150 km/h. The pacer also picked up a five-wicket haul against Gujarat Titans.
India failed to defend in both the games. Apart from a few bowlers, all the other bowlers conceded big runs. The team needs to find a way to get a settled bowling attack. Because a loss in the next match will mean a loss of the series.
