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Match Details
Date: November 5, 2021
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
Preview: With nothing to lose, the Scottish Saltires face the Men in Blue- who cannot afford to lose even a run from this point in time- on Friday. Scotland gave a tough fight to New Zealand and would look to replicate it against India. Virat Kohli and company, on the other hand, will come out all guns blazing, just to make sure if the run rate plays a role in the latter stage of the tournament, they don't regret about their performance. This is a crucial game from India's perspective, while Scotland won't shy away from turning the tables that too against a team like India.
Head-to-head: This will be the first T20I played between the sides after the game between them at the 2007 T20I World Cup got abandoned.
Pitch Report: Toss has played a major role in deciding the winner, especially when two equally powerful teams have played against each other. Batting is a bit tough in the first innings, while the second half sees the arrival of dew. Hence, chasing is much easier on the pitch. This means that a team batting first needs to post at least 20-30 runs extra on the board.
Team Analysis
India: Their opener KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma are back in form. Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant have also got back in their groove. Amidst all, the return of Ravichandran Ashwin in the T20I arena after a gap of over 4 years has been nothing short of exceptional. Jasprit Bumrah is consistent as always. However, the idea of replacing Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Shardul Thakur hasn't reaped fruits for the Indian team so far as the latter's overall bowling economy has been over 10 and his only innings saw him score a duck.
Scotland: Michael Leask has been the star for the side in the past couple of games. He is the vital cog in the lower middle-order of Scotland batting. Meanwhile, Mark Watt and Shafyaan Sharif have been the consistent performers with the ball in hand. They were also exceptional in the previous game against New Zealand by returning figures of 1/13 and 2/18, respectively, in their quota of 4 overs each.
Squads
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan
Scotland: George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer (c), Matthew Cross (wk), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Safyaan Sharif, Alasdair Evans, Bradley Wheal, Craig Wallace, Josh Davey, Dylan Budge, Hamza Tahir
Match Prediction:
Conclusion: India are clear favourites to win this game. They are definitely going to give it their all on the field, given they still have an outside chance to qualify for the semi-final.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the author’s personal point of view. They neither reflect the opinion of SportsTiger nor advise anyone to make any prediction based on this. SportsTiger does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.