Former India player Aakash Chopra has added that the Team India and England will likely have different playing combinations in the first T20I in Kolkata on Wednesday, January 22 as well. He said that the two sides have seemingly exchanged their approaches as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “The uno has been reversed. We are doing what England used to do and England are doing what we used to do, and you are thinking what exactly has changed in this world. What was England’s philosophy? When England changed the playing style of white-ball cricket, they said they needed a batter even at No. 9. Their batters used to bowl as well. So they had a plethora of all-rounders. They said bye-bye to specialists. They also won the World Cup like that and everyone looked at them and said they were incredible. They were playing a different brand of cricket.”
“However, they have changed now. They have already announced their XI. It’s telling me that England are now thinking like India. Don’t focus on the batting, look below. You will see three proper fast bowlers in Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson. Jamie Overton is an all-rounder but is a proper fast bowler, and then they have Adil Rashid,” Chopra said again.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also shared that India used to predominantly have specialist batters and bowlers in their playing XIs earlier as well.
“We used to feel the Indian team was behind the curve in T20 cricket, as they had either batters or bowlers. However, this could be the Indian XI now – Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh. You have a proper batter at No. 8 in Axar Patel. Nitish Kumar Reddy bowls. Axar gives four overs. Hardik Pandya bowls. Now the batting depth is unbelievable. We are playing totally differently. What used to be England’s template is now India’s template and vice versa. Things have changed,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
