India will face England in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-finals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, March 5. The Men in Blue pulled off a sensational 5-wicket win against West Indies as they chased down the target of 196 runs with four balls to spare. England, on the other hand, come into the Super 8 with strong momentum.
Ahead of the match, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has dropped his comments on England player Will Jacks, who plays a similar role for his team, and compared him to India all-rounder Shivam Dube.
It’s just like having Shivam Dubey-Sunil Gavaskar
Speaking to ANI ahead of the DP World Celebrity Golf event, Gavaskar said, “It’s just like having Shivam Dube. We saw in India’s match against West Indies, Dube came and hit two fours in an over to take the pressure off (his team).”
“He has been performing brilliantly, and sometimes you have a tournament where everything is going right for you. Even with the bat, he is scoring useful runs for his team lower down the order. Having a player like him batting at number seven is a real plus for England.”
Can Will Jack cause trouble for India?
Sunil Gavaskar also named Suryakumar Yadav as a potential threat to his team in the England game as he ignored players like Harry Brook, Jofra Archer, Phil Salt and Adil Rashid as the 1983 World Cup winners once again picked Will Jacks as a threat to India.
India have four left-handed players in the playing eleven in Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Verma and Shivam Dubey. However, the former both bat at the top of the order. In this situation, Will Jacques can be seen taking the new ball and providing early success to the team.
Gavaskar further added, “If the Wankhede pitch has turn, he can be a handful. So, maybe how Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav or Hardik Pandya handle him will be a key highlight.”
“They may not get a chance to bowl as many balls to the left-handed batsmen in the team, be it Abhishek, Tilak, Dubey or any lower-order player. The right-handed batsmen will have to bat against them more.”
Will Jacques is a contender for Player of the Tournament
Will Jacques has scored 191 runs in 7 innings with an excellent strike rate of 176.85, and has taken 7 wickets with an economy of 9.68. He has won four Man of the Match awards for England in this tournament, the most by any player, and is one of the contenders for Player of the Tournament if England goes to and wins the final.
If England bowl second, there are chances that dew may come into play, as we saw in the last evening’s game at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, making the target easier to chase. The toss will be an important factor considering the dew factor in the semi-final match, as both the teams would like to win the toss and chase the target.
Also read: Will Jacques be ruled out of the T20 World Cup semi-final against India?
