India expected to give reserves a chance against UAE

DHAKA: India and UAE are going to be on the field at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Thursday (today) in a game of purely academic interest.

The result of the match will not affect any of the two teams — India are already in the final, having won three in three, while UAE are at the bottom of the points table, with losses in all their games so far.

India have been tested, but never threatened too seriously in the tournament so far.

The bowling, led by Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah at the top, has worked wonderfully well, while Rohit Sharma in the first game and Virat Kohli since have starred in the batting efforts.

Saying that India are taking UAE lightly would be incorrect, but MS Dhoni did say after the win over Sri Lanka that he wanted to give the reserve players a go in the final game.

“We’ll definitely make a few changes. How many, we will see, because we still want the strength and the composition of the side to be very good. I think most of the players will definitely get a chance in the next game,” he had said.

Thankfully for India, both Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan have recovered sufficiently from their injuries and though Dhoni does have an iffy back, he hasn’t really showed it on the field.

Among the men on the bench, Ajinkya Rahane had a go in Dhawan’s absence in the Pakistan game, but against a rampaging Amir, he fell for a first-ball duck.

The others who will hope to make a case for themselves if given a chance are Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Pawan Negi, none of whom have played a game so far. Parthiv Patel was called up as Dhoni’s backup, but according to a tournament official, he can only play if one of the main 15 is withdrawn.

Going by their performances against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, UAE could do a bit of the same — push India. Their big star has been Amjad Javed, the captain, who has been a revelation. There have been a few good hands from some of the others, but Amjad has shone through, playing key roles in all that has been good for UAE.