India’s coach, Gautam Gambhir, has indicated he will keep England guessing about the deployment of star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah ahead of Thursday’s T20 World Cup semi-final.
Bumrah, widely regarded as the world’s premier all-format paceman and the only bowler in the top 10 of both Test and T20 rankings, has been used flexibly by India throughout the tournament.
In Sunday’s final Super 8s game against the West Indies, he bowled just one over in the powerplay before delivering his remaining three later in the innings, finishing with two for 36 in Kolkata.
Gambhir explained this strategic approach was tailored to counter the West Indies’ powerful middle-order, confirming that a horses for courses strategy would continue against England.
“We knew that West Indies has got a lot of firepower in the middle, those guys can take the game away from us,” Gambhir stated. “So we always knew that we needed someone like Bumrah to bowl at them. That’s the reason why we felt that Bumrah was important in the middle.
“So every time we have a big over, we can go back to Bumrah and try and control the game. I think Bumrah is a banker and we’ll continue to use him in different ways.”
India secured their semi-final spot by chasing down a challenging 196 against the West Indies, with Sanju Samson anchoring the innings with a composed 97 not out.
While India comprehensively defeated England by 150 runs in their last T20 encounter 13 months ago at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium – the venue for this week’s semi-final – Gambhir cautioned against drawing direct comparisons.
“One thing is very clear that bilateral (matches) are very different to World Cups,” he added.
“The pressure is different, the competition is different, obviously the stakes are much higher. (England are) a world-class team, they’re a quality team, they’ve got a lot of quality players as well.
“Hopefully we can keep ticking all the boxes which is going to be important because we will need a special effort to beat a quality side like England.”
