The New Zealand fast bowlers Matt Henry is the latest who joined the ranks that criticized India for playing all the matches in the same place. Matt Henry thinks India had a luxury of knowing the conditions compared to other teams.
India should play all their games in the current champion trophy in Dubai after refusing to travel to Pakistan. As a result, Indian opposing teams were critical of India, who received the ‘undisputed advantage’ of playing in just one place.
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Matt Henry adds fuel to criticism of Indian “advantage”
After losing to India in the last group stage of the tournament match, the New Zealand Pacer Matt Henry spoke of men in Blue’s knowledge of the conditions that allowed them to get well in the match.
“I think, obviously, the way four frontline Spinner is a really effective way of playing. I think that luxury of cognition (conditions) was playing nicely in the conditions. It was probably a challenge for us,” Henry said at a press conference.
India played four Spinners in this match – Kuldeep Yadav, Ravandra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy. They decided to rest a quick wound bowler for this match, but his replacement Chakravarthy was very impressive with five winch draws.
Before Matt Henry, not. Of the former and current cristers, they obviously spoke about the benefits of India to play under similar tournament conditions. Some of these names are Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and the current southern African dough growing van der Dussen.
Matt Henry Lauds India’s Spinners
As he spoke further at a press conference, Matt Henry also praised Indian bowlers for their impressive performance. He said several special words for Chakravarthy to create great performance with his subtle variations.
“We knew they would play four Spinners. They worshiped nicely. They read the situation and the conditions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go over the line.” Henry stated.
“He (Chakravarthy) worshiped nicely, didn’t he? I think he showed his skill, the way he turned the ball in both directions, he could have gripped. They could do us under pressure in full,” he noticed.
“He took out the turn and pace, and he was just, in order to be on such a winning performance, so that he could create pressure and I suppose they did so in the tandem,” Pacer said.
Matt Henry himself was also impressive in this game and returned with figures of 5-42 in 8 addings. The NZ Sailor was exceptional with a new ball and also bought well in death.
Will India throw Varun Chakravarthy in the semifinals?
India will play next to Australia in the semifinals that will be played on March 4 in Dubai. Because Chakravarthy will spend extremely well against New Zealand, India will have a choice headache.
Chakravarthy created great figures of 5-42 in 10 additions, and won the player award for the match. He proved himself as an X-Factor for his team in the last match.
The Dubai terrain is likely to help spinners and there is a great opportunity for India to go with the same playing XI for this game. However, they will face a high quality Australian hit line, which usually manages well in ICC tournaments.
