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| March 23, 2003 | Sunday | Muharram 19, 1424 |
Ganguly urged to field extra bowler
NEW DELHI, March 22: India captain Saurav Ganguly should rise above “superstitions and quirks” and include spinner Anil Kumble against Australia in the final, former Australian skipper Ian Chappell said.
“It’s the Aussie batting that India must keep under control and to do so they need an extra front-line bowler in their line-up,” Chappell wrote in his column in the Hindustan Times.
“My choice would be Anil Kumble and I would even be tempted to open the bowling with the highly competitive leg-spinner who has troubled both Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden at times.”
Kumble, with 308 wickets in 241 one-dayers, has virtually been reduced to the role of a spectator in the competition. He has figured in just three of his team’s 10 matches.
Ganguly’s team won nine of those games with just four specialist bowlers — three pacemen (Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra) and one spinner (Harbhajan Singh).
India hardly felt the absence of a fifth regular bowler in their previous matches as the trio of speedsters did remarkably well by sharing 43 wickets.
Chappell, however, felt India would require an extra specialist bowler in order to stop the rampaging Australian batsmen in the final showdown.
“So far in this World Cup, India have been predictable almost to the point of being paranoid with their selection, but they need to change that pattern for the final,” he said.
“At the very least, I’d have Kumble primed and ready to go early if Gilchrist does start well against the quicks as the experienced leggie enjoys bowling with close catchers around the bat.
“It is this type of innovative captaincy that has brought New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming success against Australia.”—AFP
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