On October 24, India’s T20 World Cup campaign is about to begin with their clash against arch-rivals Pakistan. Everyone’s excited about it and ahead of India’s first warm-up game against England, VVS Laxman and former South African pacer Dale Steyn were seen picking their ideal indian playing eleven for the high-voltage encounter against Pakistan. While a majority of their picks were identical, Dale Steyn chose to disagree with one choice made by VVS; citing current form as the sole reason.
Dale Steyn wants Mohammed Shami to play against Pakistan
Steyn choses to pick Mohammed Shami over Bhuvi while selecting his Indian playing eleven for the clash against Babar’s men. Earlier, VVS had named Bhuvneshwar Kumar in his eleven. Citing current form as the difference maker, here’s what Dale had to say.
“I would not have been able to name it as perfectly as VVS. But one change- I would bring in Shami ahead of Bhuvi, just on current form alone. Shami has been doing it quite nicely. Bhuvi is fantastic, but on current form I would go with Shami in this side.”
Steyn hails Pandya as Game Changer
Both Laxman and Dale Steyn also picked Hardik Pandya in their respective sides. Pandya wasn’t seen bowling in the recently concluded edition of the Indian Premier League and will probably play as a specialist batsman in the T20 World Cup. But the 28 year-old is still backed by Dale Steyn, who terms him as a “game-changer.”
“Look, he(Hardik Pandya) is a game-changer. That’s the big thing. He is a gamechanger whether he’s got bat or ball in his hand, specifically with the bat actually. He has not bowled a lot lately. At all to be honest. I would pick him purely on his batting alone. When he comes out to bat, teams would have to prepare accordingly because Hardik Pandya can take the game away from you quite easily with the bat,” feels Steyn.
It is to be noted that currently, India doesn’t have any other batter who can take-up the finisher’s role and walk-in at number 6. Neither is anyone as electric as Hardik when it comes to fielding in the deep. Therefore, Hardik being an automatic pick in both VVS’ and Dale’s playing eleven makes enough sense in our opinion. By the way, here’s what their complete playing XI look like.
Laxman’s XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy.
Steyn’s XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy and Mohammed Shami.