Chance for India to test bench strength in clash against Oman

It is approximately a 130-kilometre stretch over 90 minutes that will take the Indian team from its hotel in Dubai to the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi for the Group-A encounter against Oman in the Asia Cup on Friday. If India’s nine-wicket victory in its opening game against the United Arab Emirates, which lasted all of 17.4 overs, is an indication, the journey to the venue may be as arduous as it gets for the in-form Suryakumar Yadav-led outfit in the inconsequential fixture.

The Men in Blue, who qualified for the Super Four phase with resounding wins over the UAE and Pakistan, are far too superior to the team from the Middle East to expect anything less than another facile triumph in the penultimate match of the preliminary phase. This will be the first meeting between the two nations.

So far in the tournament, the Indians haven’t hit a false note. In their first match, they bundled out the UAE for 57 and raced home in less than five overs. Pakistan was expected to offer a more rigid examination, but India’s bowlers produced another stellar showing, restricting the arch-rival to 127 for nine to clinch a seven-wicket rout.

Before the Super Four phase gets underway for India with another high-stakes outing against Pakistan on Sunday, this is an opportunity to give some of its players on the bench a run out. Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Jitesh Sharma and Rinku Singh have had to bide their time on the sidelines in the first two games. Arshdeep, in particular, must be chomping at the bit for a chance, given he also spent the entirety of the five-Test series in England as a substitute. The left-arm pacer, one shy of 100 wickets in T20Is, is India’s highest wicket-taker in the format, but the team balance on these spin-friendly surfaces has not merited more than the lone specialist quick in Jasprit Bumrah.

“These pitches have been very helpful for spin. During the Champions Trophy, the surfaces were slow. But now, there is a lot more bounce and zip off the surface,” left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav told the media on Thursday.

Before the Oman players rub shoulders with some of the best in the business, they should be buoyed by coach Duleep Mendis’ message. “You can perform over and over again with the small countries. But you will not be known. If you have one or two big performances against good sides, then you are recognised. This type of opportunity, they will never get,” Mendis told The Hindu on Wednesday.

The teams (from): India: Suryakumar Yadav (Capt.), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh. Oman: Jatinder Singh (Capt.), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza (wk), Vinayak Shukla (wk), Sufyan Yousaf (wk), Mohammad Nadeem, Nadeem Khan, Karan Sonavale, Hassnain Shah, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, Sufyan Mehmood, Aryan Bisht, Muhammed Imran, Ashish Odedara, Jiten Ramanandi, Shah Faisal, Zikria Islam.