India face a must-win T20 World Cup match against Zimbabwe and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has backed opener Abhishek Sharma and number three Tilak Varma under pressure, saying both are close to achieving their targets.
India, fresh off a 76-run loss to South Africa in Ahmedabad, need to play Zimbabwe on Thursday to remain competitive. They will also be partly reliant on South Africa remaining unbeaten in the Super Eights stage. Abhishek and Tilak’s fight, especially against external spin, hurt India’s campaign.
Abhishek, the world’s top-ranked T20I batsman, enters the South Africa match after suffering a three-match losing streak in the tournament. He scored 15 goals from 12 goals but failed to turn the situation around. The left-hander continued the attack but was unable to build an inning. Tilak, meanwhile, has scored 107 runs in five innings at an average of around 21 and a strike rate of just over 118.
“We only lost one game and it was a good game against them (South Africa) and we didn’t play well. Abhishek looked good in the last game; there is no point in overthinking one person. It puts too much pressure on them. Our job is to keep him in a good frame of mind. So when he got 30 balls When he scored 80, 70, 90, 40, 50 balls and scored 100, no one was talking about his game at that time. Once he starts batting again, you will see the same Abhishek again, no doubt in this game, there is no guarantee that he will do it in the next game, but I think he is not far away from scoring.”
Kotak also defended Tilak’s scoring rate, referring to the fact that he scored 25 off 24 balls against Pakistan at the Colombo Stadium when the team had a target of 175 or more.
“Our plan was right. The ball was spinning there. Ishan gave us a great start and after such an start, no team wants to lose three or four wickets very quickly. It was a matter of two boundaries for Tilak. Sometimes the batsmen don’t get those balls. So I don’t think there was a question of running the ball. He was not instructed (to run the ball) either. At times, depending on the wicket and the situation, I think there was more cooperation in that game at Colombo,” he concluded.
