Defending champions India are set to close out their Group A campaign of the Men's T20 World Cup with a big clash against Netherlands at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. Though India have already secured their place in the Super 8s, this showdown surely carries implications for the remaining contenders.
India are comfortably at the top of the table, having already confirmed qualification. But the real drama, however, surrounds the race for the second Super 8 spot. Pakistan and USA are locked together on four points, while the Netherlands trail with two.
For Pakistan, the equation is pretty clear, as they need a win to advance. For them, a victory would eliminate both the USA and the Netherlands from the tournament. Notably, even if Pakistan falter, Netherlands have a huge task at hand. Their net run rate suffered a heavy blow in their defeat to the USA, leaving them in a big fix. To overtake their rivals, they would need a massive win against India to make it to the Super 8.
India, on the other hand, have been impressive. They faced a little test against USA, but they responded with authority in subsequent matches. India's matches against Namibia and arch-rivals Pakistan were splendidly successful as they delivered composed performances to secure comfortable victories. Having already sealed progression, this match will provide India an opportunity to fine-tune combinations and maintain momentum heading into the Super 8 phase.
Head-to-head
Matches - 1
IND won - 1
NED won - 0
India possible XI: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy.
Netherlands possible XI: Michael Levitt, Max O'Dowd, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards (c&wk), Zach Lion-Cachet, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt, Roelof van der Merwe, and two of Kyle Klein, Fred Klaassen and Paul van Meekeren.