Spinners seek the right turn

Visakhapatnam: With the series already sealed, India will be hoping for a positive turn in their spinners’ performance while attempting to extend the total domination over New Zealand to the fourth T20I here on Wednesday.

The batting storm kicked up by Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan and the resultant 3-0 series lead has so far masked the underwhelming outings of two premier spinners -- Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy.

Kuldeep has picked up two wickets in as many matches, but looked a distant shadow of his bewitching self, conceding 9.5 runs an over.

The left-arm wrist spinner had three expensive overs, that leaked 32 runs, even when India limited the Kiwis to 153 for 9 riding on brilliant spells by Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi and Hardik Pandya.

In fact, the modest effort was a continuation from the preceding ODI series in which he took three wickets across three matches and gave away 7.28 runs an over. Chakravarthy, who was rested for the third T20I, is a slightly different case as he has played in two high-scoring matches when the visitors scored 190 and 208.

But the usual zip has not been there in his bowling. The little time away might have been useful in replenishing him.

Kuldeep or Bishnoi?

In that context, India will ponder whether to persist with Bishnoi (4-0-18-2 at Guwahati) in the fourth match, and bring back Chakravarthy in place of Kuldeep to allow the latter some breathing space.

India will also keep a close eye on the fitness of all-rounder Axar Patel, as he has not played since the first game at Nagpur because of a finger injury.

While the bowling pieces in this series have still not entirely fallen in their places, the hosts’ batting has been a different story. The top-order reshaped India’s T20 batting in this series and third match resembled an extended Power Play. Abhishek has scored at a strike-rate of over 300 while Suryakumar and Kishan have maintained a strike-rate close to 230.

Such has been the fury in their batting that India have so far spent only a combined 25.2 overs in the park while chasing 209 and 154 (363 runs in total) in the second and third T20Is.

If the nature of the pitch and the amount of dew in Visakhapatnam are anything to go by, this match too will not be offering a different script. The only out of sync piece, surprisingly too, is the wretched form of Sanju Samson, who has been given his preferred opening slot in this series.