New Delhi (Nilesh Tiwari): It would be a huge task on the shoulders of Daryl Mitchell as New Zealand would try to win the Champions Trophy for the first time in 2000.
Topping career best in 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup (552 runs at 69) and Pakistani average (517 runs at 51.70), the all-round batting sensation has exceeded expectations under Asian conditions from his early days.
Mitchell, cutting and driving so impressively off legs, pumped and drove energies growing with match cricket. The batter maintained the energy by scoring two half-centuries in certainty shots in his three games in middle overs of just concluded Tri-Nation series against Pakistan.
Mitchell will be centrepiece of New Zealand batting line-up during Champions Trophy with Kane Williamson able support behind him.
All the cricketers recall Heinrich Klaasen when they are observed as looking depressed and disappointed. Klaasen is being provided an opportunity to finish his task first among the remainder of the middle-order batsmen who carry the responsibility of the accumulator to carry on.
The strategy has functioned nicely behind the scenes for the Proteas, by any standard which is jealous in shades of green in terms of strike rate against bowling average and the third-best strike rate in ODI cricket history (at least 500 balls).
Klaasen also bludgeons park with bat as he is that fiery but also possesses an evolved pull shot to accompany it which can leave even world-class spinners themselves perplexed, and this one sole reason and for no other reason, not even the opposing team will be able to stifle runs if he is at the crease.
Indian side head coach Gautam Gambhir’s recent admission that Shreyas Iyer is “always crucial” for India after they completed their 3-0 series victory against England only goes to further reinforce Indian side’s increasing reliance on Indian player.
Shreyas left the world stunned with his batting in a mesmerizing 181 score at a strike rate of 123.12 as well as value contribution with a run flow in middle overs.
India ODI XI has been the beneficiary of his transformation into a middle-order rockman in the past two years as he takes pressure off the top order.
Iyer would be Indian batting’s fulcrum with the yo-yoing numbers of veteran warhorses Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the past few years. He is a middle over destroyer and the aggressor’s role-player who can interchange either role with ease at any given moment required by the side.
Left-handed Ben Duckett, whose left-handed cutting ability in the air for his team from start to finish, is England’s top destroyer of run-a-ball strike rate and sound batting average upper-order batsmen.
Along with opener Phil Salt, he will offer left-right spread-the-board appearances and will play Pakistan and the UAE, where batsmen will start playing as a try to reach winning totals or to make smart chases.
There is, though, a need to unleash Duckett after the Joe Root, Jos Buttler, and Harry Brook omissions.
Pakistan’s standby opening batsman cover for Saeed Anwar, Fakhar Zaman is as good at altering the character of a game on your coin flip as it is well placed to be. Fakhar elegant on the eye stroke play shuts up shop as much through timing and class as with Anwar.
And then he burned 210* against Zimbabwe in 2018 to set Pakistan’s fresh ODI record. Fakhar’s 114 last minute cricket against India in Champions Trophy final in 2017 was constructed by him so that Pakistan may decide their first trophy.
Having last played a cricket match last June due to sickness and accidents, Fakhar is again part of the Tri-Nation tournament and will try even more aggressively to guide Pakistan towards.
