Former England cricketer turned commentator Nick Knight gives his view on how England will target Sanju Samson, and the roles of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer.
Powerful batting line-ups and Wankhede. How do you think the game will play out?
From an Indian perspective, the Powerplay is going to be crucial — that’s going to be a fascinating matchup with Jofra Archer and the likes of , Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. Watching India in the tournament so far, on the rare occasion when they’ve got off to a flying start, it’s kind of settled the nerves of the middle order. The middle order, at times, has looked a little anxious, a little lacking in composure when the top order hasn’t fired. So it’s important they get off to a flying start.
Archer is going to be absolutely crucial. Over a year ago, he got smashed by Abhishek on this ground and he will have learned some lessons from that. He was a little short on that occasion, so I’m sure he’ll vary his lengths a bit more.
How do you think England will go against Sanju Samson?
They bowled the short ball to him a lot recently and they may well go to that. But his rhythm at the crease and his early trigger movements are a lot more established now than they were perhaps this time last year. So the go-to will probably be the short ball, but I’m not so sure that’s always going to work. Where England’s quicker bowlers have to be careful is that they haven’t targeted the stumps enough — they’ve got to quickly change up.
Varun Chakravarthy has done well against England. How will that match-up go?
It will be difficult. As soon as Brook comes into bat, I would put Chakravarthy on, whatever the stage of the match. At the moment he’s bowling a few too many googlies — it’s become a little too predictable. He might just need to add a little more variety rather than bowling more googlies than ever before. But he’s a high-class bowler and will be a potent force for India.
What do you think of the roles of and Jofra Archer?
Archer should bowl as many overs in the powerplay as possible — he’s a much more potent force there than at the back end of an innings. Bumrah, for me, is simple: you use him when you feel the threat is at its greatest. If Salt and Buttler had been taking the tournament apart, Bumrah opens the bowling. Because they haven’t been, they might be tempted to open with Hardik and leave Bumrah for later. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go down that route.
What is going wrong with Buttler?
I’m not so sure it’s so much technical. The biggest lesson I learned in my career when out of form is that the easiest thing not to do is focus on the most obvious thing — and that is the ball. Watch the ball more than you’ve ever watched it before. That sometimes takes out the external thoughts, the baggage, the clutter about the technical elements of your game. Just watch the ball and play with instinct and flair. He’s been one of the great players of T20 cricket for many years, so it’s not going to take a lot to turn it around.
Why did it take this long to promote Brook to three, and what about his captaincy?
I’ve been pushing for that right from the start of this tournament — in fact, for quite a while now. He’s always been England’s number 3. He’s a guy who can dictate terms and play innings that not many people in the world can play.
He’s still an embryonic captain, so let’s not think he’s the finished article. But what I like about him is that he seems calm under pressure. They’ve won 16 out of 18 games under Brook — they’ve got a bit of resilience about them.
This is going to be a big challenge, though. In Sri Lanka his captaincy was more straightforward with the extra spinners. Here in , his gut feel around when to take the pace off and when to bring it on is really going to be tested.
