India and Oman will face each other in the ongoing Asia Cup on 19th September at UAE.
Match Preview:
As anticipated, the Asia Cup group stage concludes with a dead rubber in Group A and a high-stakes match in Group B. Oman and India dispute this dead rubber, and their objectives are very dissimilar.
This could help India get some of their middle- and lower-order hitters crease time and some of their bowlers match time before the Super Four stage. Three of their top eight players have participated in both of their games thus far but have not yet faced a ball, while four members of their squad have not yet played a game.
India has chosen to keep Sanju Samson as their wicketkeeper rather than Jitesh Sharma because they believe he can fill a new role in the middle order. However, with DNBs against Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, he has yet to have an opportunity to play that role in this tournament. Will he be able to bat against Oman?
This is Oman’s final game against a Full Member team before they host the T20 World Cup Asia & East-Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier, a tournament of significant importance, next month. Three of the nine teams competing in that tournament will advance to the T20 World Cup the following year. Learnings from this Asia Cup and this final match against India may help Oman achieve their goal of being one of those three teams.
Throughout the Asia Cup, he has returned an economy rate of just 4.71. He has been even more economical in the powerplay, scoring just 3.50 over four overs. As the raiding, left-handed Abhishek Sharma waits at the top of India’s lineup, Shakeel Ahmed, who has had a fantastic tournament thus far, will now be put to the ultimate test: will Oman stick with their left-arm spinner with the new ball?
Probable Playing XI:
India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy
Oman (probable): 1 Jatinder Singh (capt), 2 Aamir Kaleem, 3 Hammad Mirza, 4 Wasim Ali, 5 Aryan Bisht, 6 Vinayak Shukla (wk), 7 Jiten Ramamnandi, 8 Shah Faisal, 9 Shakeel Ahmed, 10 Hassnain Shah, 11 Samay Shrivastava
Pitch and weather conditions:
Recent history suggests that the pitches in Abu Dhabi don’t have quite as much help for spin as those in Dubai do. In T20Is since the beginning of 2023, spinners have averaged less than 20 and gone at less than 6.5 per over in Dubai; in Abu Dhabi, they have averaged over 38 and given up more than 7.5 per over. This may be reflected in the selections made by the two teams.
Head-to-head record:
It will be the first T20i encounter between Oman and India at international level.
Where to Watch:
Pakistan: PTV Sports, Tamasha, Myco
India: Sony Sports Network, Sony Liv app
UAE and MENA: CricLife Max via eLife TV and Switch TV, StarzPlay
Australia: Kayo Sports
Bangladesh: Gazi TV, Toffee, Tapmad
