Zimbabwe skipper Craig Ervine has encouraged his side to rise to the occasion and play spoiler by knocking India out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Sunday. While Zimbabwe is expected to be out of semi-final contention by the time they take the field in Melbourne, the same cannot be said for India, which is aiming for a top-two finish in Group 2 and a place in the tournament’s knockout rounds.
Zimbabwe showed their quality by defeating Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, and Ervine expects his side to do the same when they face India at the MCG in front of a crowd of around 90,000 people. The victory against Pakistan has given us a big amount of confidence that we can beat any team in the tournament,” Ervine said on Saturday.
Zimbabwe skipper out to emulate Pakistan
“I don’t believe that will alter before tomorrow’s game.”
The ability of Zimbabwe’s bowling attack to deal with the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Suryakumar Yadav will be critical to the game’s outcome, and Ervine wants to see his speed attack step up for the moment. Blessing Muzarabani will lead the Zimbabwe pacers once more, and the beanpole fast has been a revelation thus far in the T20 World Cup, sitting equal for second in most wickets with 11 scalps.
Fellow seamer Richard Ngarava has eight wickets, while star all-rounder Sikandar Raza has nine scalps to go with his team-leading 185 runs, and Ervine sees a wonderful opportunity for his squad against India. This is a fantastic chance to bowl against some of the top men in the world, so there’s no reason why folks wouldn’t want to step out there and deliver,” he added.
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“When is the last time you had the chance to put Virat Kohli in your pocket? I’m certain that our fast bowlers will be ready to go tomorrow.” And, while Ervine would love nothing more than to grab a cheap wicket of Kohli, he understands it will be a tall order given the former India captain’s current form, in which he has only been removed once in four innings at 2017 T20 World Cup.
“I don’t believe we have any intentions to take on Virat.”I simply believe he’s too outstanding a player,” Ervine added.
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“You can dissect so many different theories for a lot of these guys, and at the end of the day, if you come out and hit a good area, use your change-ups, all that sort of stuff, I don’t think special plans really work for these guys because they’re so good at adapting to different conditions and situations.