T20 WC: What India need to do to qualify for the semi-finals - Scenar…

When India cricket team captain Shreyas Iyer unveiled the playing XI for the IRE vs IND 1st T20I at the toss on Friday, he mentioned that the team was going with two spinners, three seamers and one all-rounder. The two spinners were Axar Patel and Washington Sundar – although both are all-rounders. And clearly, for a person who was included in the line-up as a spinner, Sundar was underutilized by the captain, as it has so occurred with the Tamil Nadu cricketer multiple times in the past across formats.

Washington’s role in the IRE vs IND 1st T20I was confusing and baffling. He was used just for one over with the ball, that too at the back end of the innings. With the bat, he was used at number 6. If we look at how Sundar has been used with the ball over the last two years in T20Is, one thing becomes clear – his role in the setup is not clearly defined and the flexible approach of using him as a bowler as yielded lesser results for India. truewildslot.com

To use or not to use Washington Sundar in T20Is

Let’s take a look at Sundar’s stats in T20Is with the ball from 2025 and 2026. After featuring in 12 T20Is in 2024 in which he picked up 16 wickets in 35 overs, the quota of overs allocated to the spinner decreased by a huge margin in the following years. In 2025, Washi played 6 T20Is in which he bowled just 7.2 overs, and picked up 4 wickets. In those six games, he bowled just 1 over in two matches, 1.2 in another, and just one full quota of 4 overs against South Africa in 2025.

Cut to 2026, he has featured in 3 T20Is – where he has bowled a combined of 7 overs and is yet to pick up a wicket this year. Talking about the number of overs he has bowled, he bowled 4 against Netherlands and 2 against South Africa in the T20 World Cup, followed by just a single over against Ireland in the IRE vs IND 1st T20I.

Going by what captain Iyer said at the toss, Sundar should have gotten more overs in the game. However, that was not the case. Understandably, pacers extracted more favour from the surface at Belfast, and therefore it made more sense for Shreyas to stick to using Dube, Rana, Arshdeep and Prasidh. However, there seems to be very little logic in having Sundar in the playing XI if he is going to be underutilized with the ball, given that India already possess a batting heavy line-up.

It is pertinent to point out that the usage of Sundar has been rather irregular, and it has happened not just in the Iyer era of captaincy but also when Suryakumar Yadav was at the helm of affairs. For a bowler who has 51 wickets from 61 T20Is, at an average of 24.17 and an career economy rate of 7.05, he surely deserves more overs.

Batting position isn’t exactly an issue, as Sundar has been used at the number 6 or 7 positions in T20Is for some time now, and he has gotten used to it. After all, he has scored majority of the runs while batting at number 6 (114 runs). Therefore, the Indian team management needs to evaluate and define Sundar’s role specifically in T20Is. Else, it is just one extra all-rounder occupying a spot in the playing XI.

The post Underutilized Washington Sundar’s role not clearly defined, doesn’t fit in India’s T20I setup appeared first on Inside Sport India.

ભારતીય હોકી ટીમે છેલ્લા દાયકામાં પાકિસ્તાન સામે પોતાનો પ્રભાવશાળી રેકોર્ડ જાળવી રાખ્યો છે, લંડનમાં FIH પ્રો હોકી લીગ 2025-26 મેચમાં પાકિસ્તાન સામે 7-1ના વ્યાપક માર્જિનથી જીત મેળવી હતી. આ મેચ પહેલા, ભારતે 23 જૂને પાકિસ્તાનનો સામનો કર્યો હતો, જેમાં તેણે 4-3ના માર્જિનથી જીત મેળવી હતી. પાકિસ્તાને મેચની શરૂઆત સારી રીતે કરી હતી, પ્રથમ ક્વાર્ટરમાં 1-0થી આગળ હતું, પરંતુ ટીમ ઈન્ડિયાએ બીજા ક્વાર્ટરમાં પ્રભુત્વ મેળવ્યું હતું, અંત સુધી પોતાની લીડ જાળવી રાખીને શાનદાર એકતરફી વિજય મેળવ્યો હતો.

ભારતે શરૂઆતના પરાજય પછી ગિયર્સ બદલ્યા

બંને ટીમોએ મેચની આક્રમક શરૂઆત કરી હતી. મનદીપ સિંહના શાનદાર રનથી ભારતને પ્રથમ 90 સેકન્ડમાં પ્રથમ પેનલ્ટી કોર્નર મળ્યો, પરંતુ ટીમ તેને રૂપાંતરિત કરવામાં નિષ્ફળ રહી. બીજી તરફ, વળતા હુમલાની રણનીતિ રમતા પાકિસ્તાને 13મી મિનિટે પેનલ્ટી કોર્નર મેળવ્યો, જેને તેમના કેપ્ટન અબુ બકર મહમૂદે ડ્રેગ-ફ્લિકથી રૂપાંતરિત કર્યો. આ ગોલથી પાકિસ્તાનને પ્રથમ ક્વાર્ટરના અંતે 1-0ની લીડ મળી.

બીજા ક્વાર્ટરમાં હરમનપ્રીત અને સુખજીત ચમક્યા

ભારતીય ટીમે બીજા ક્વાર્ટરમાં લાંબા અને સચોટ પાસિંગ સાથે મેચને સંપૂર્ણપણે ફેરવી દીધી. 18મી મિનિટમાં, પાકિસ્તાનને મોટો ઝટકો લાગ્યો જ્યારે તેમના ખેલાડી અલી ગઝનફરનો પાસ તેના સાથી અહેમદ નદીમના ચહેરા પર વાગ્યો, જેના કારણે તે મેદાન છોડીને ચાલ્યો ગયો. ભારતીય ટીમે આ દબાણનો લાભ ઉઠાવ્યો અને 20મી મિનિટે પેનલ્ટી કોર્નર મેળવ્યો. સુખજીત સિંહે ચતુરાઈથી કેપ્ટન હરમનપ્રીત સિંહના બુલેટ ડ્રેગ-ફ્લિકને નેટમાં ફેરવ્યો, જેનાથી સ્કોર 1-1 પર બરાબર થયો. ત્યારબાદ કેપ્ટન હરમનપ્રીત સિંહે 26મી મિનિટમાં બીજા પેનલ્ટી કોર્નરને ઉપરના ડાબા ખૂણામાં ફેરવ્યો, જેનાથી ભારતને હાફટાઇમમાં 2-1ની લીડ મળી.

https://x.com/TheHockeyIndia/status/2070586411531845685?s=20

બીજા હાફમાં ગોલનો વરસાદ

હાફટાઇમ પછી, ભારતીય ફોરવર્ડ લાઇને પાકિસ્તાન પર સંપૂર્ણ પ્રભુત્વ જમાવ્યું. ભારતે સતત બે પેનલ્ટી કોર્નર મેળવ્યા, જેમાંથી બીજો પેનલ્ટી સ્ટ્રોકમાં પરિણમ્યો. હાર્દિક સિંહે તેને દોષરહિત રીતે કન્વર્ટ કર્યો. પછી, પાકિસ્તાને પેનલ્ટી કોર્નર બ્લોક કર્યા પછી તરત જ, ભારતે વીજળીક રીતે ઝડપી વળતો હુમલો શરૂ કર્યો. દિલપ્રીત અને સુખજીત વચ્ચે સંપૂર્ણ સંકલન પછી, બોલ જુગરાજ સિંહ સુધી પહોંચ્યો, જેમણે તેને સીધો ગોલપોસ્ટમાં ફટકાર્યો અને લીડ 4-1 સુધી વધારી દીધી.41મી મિનિટમાં, ઉત્તમ ફોર્મમાં રહેલા સુખજીતએ બીજી એક ઉત્તમ તક બનાવી અને બોલ અભિષેકને પાસ કર્યો, જેણે દોડીને શાનદાર ફિલ્ડ ગોલ કરીને ટીમને 5-1 કરી દીધી. રમતની 44મી મિનિટે રાજ કુમાર પાલે ગોલ કર્યો. ચોથા અને અંતિમ ક્વાર્ટરમાં ભારતે પોતાનું વર્ચસ્વ ચાલુ રાખ્યું. 54મી મિનિટે, દિલપ્રીત સિંહે એક સુંદર ફિલ્ડ મૂવમાં રૂપાંતર કરીને ભારતનો સાતમો ગોલ કર્યો, અને ઐતિહાસિક 7-1 વિજય મેળવ્યો. આ જીત સાથે, ભારતે ત્રણ પોઈન્ટ મેળવ્યા.

આ પણ વાંચો - IND Vs PAK: ભારતે પાકિસ્તાનને હરાવ્યું, 4-3થી જીતી મેચ

Vaibhav Tripathi & Rohit Juglan

Go on Instagram and search for Mitchell Santner. The New Zealand white-ball captain, despite holding a central contract across all formats, has just two words in his bio: part-time cricketer. It’s classic Santner — self-deprecating and a little cheeky.

But away from the humour, there are cricketers for whom being “part-time” isn’t a punchline. It’s reality.

The most familiar face in that conversation is Saurabh Netravalkar. The Indian-born left-arm seamer became one of the stories of the T20 World Cup, juggling a full-time job in the United States of America with international cricket. In a country where cricket barely registers alongside mainstream sports, Netravalkar showed that chasing two careers at once isn’t just possible — it’s sometimes necessary. Fortunately for him, his employer backs his cricketing commitments whenever international duty calls.

More than 6,500 kilometres away, while Netravalkar was winning admirers on one side of the world, another story was quietly taking shape.

It belonged to another Indian-origin left-arm quick. Another cricketer who had left India, not to chase professional cricket, but to study, build a career and settle into a different life. Cricket had slowly become a weekend pursuit rather than a profession.

Then came India. Sanju Samson dragged one back onto his stumps. Shivam Dube chipped a return catch straight back. Jai Moondra wasn’t overawed by the occasion. He attacked with pace, shaped the ball both ways and cleverly mixed in slower deliveries when the conditions demanded it. Against the world champions, the 29-year-old looked like he belonged. What stood out most was his control and execution against the world champions.

There had been plenty of talk about whether he would be handed his debut, and now it has become one to remember for Irish cricket. Ireland beat India for the first time, and Moondra returned figures of 2/25. The left-arm pacer could easily have finished with three wickets had a catch not been dropped, and perhaps even claimed the Player of the Match award.

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It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he is an accidental find for Ireland. Like many others, Moondra believed his cricketing career was over, especially after he moved to Ireland for work. Then something clicked. He started playing local cricket, and around 18 months ago came an opportunity that he grabbed with both hands.

“I ran a fast bowling clinic 18 months ago and credit to Jai he travelled across Dublin two nights a week and came in and trained with me for four months,” Ireland’s bowling coach Ryan Eagleson said in the post-match press conference. “A left-arm seamer is always a huge commodity in any form of cricket, especially T20 cricket.”

As many as six of Ireland’s first-choice seamers are currently injured. That opened the door for Moondra, and he made an instant impact.

Perhaps it was written in the stars for Moondra. Making his debut against India, the country of his birth, the 29-year-old left-arm pacer is now part of Irish cricket history.

“We’ve got six seamers out injured at the minute but in international cricket you need to have at least 10 or 12 seamers for back-up and competition for places,” Eagleson added. “Jai has been on our radar, but the way he came in today and did that job… we’ve watched him for Leinster Lightning over the last few years and he’s done an outstanding job with the new ball and at the back end.”

Moondra does not hold a central contract. His visa status is also tied to his employment and still needs to be resolved. But that is unlikely to be on his mind right now. Instead, he and his team will have another opportunity on Sunday to create even more history – by beating India on home soil.

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