EXPLAINED: Why Mohammed Shami Should Open Bowling For India In World Cup Final; Winning Powerplays Important For Both Teams

Shami is the best bowler among all in this World Cup in the powerplays and deserves to share the new ball with Jasprit Bumrah, especially in Ahmedabad with no swing movement and with two left-handed openers in opposition team.

Mohammed Shami. (Source: ANI)

The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 final between India and Australia is more likely to be decided by the powerplay factor more than anything else. The first ten overs period and who bosses it will be crucial in taking control of the game. The reason why India have been excellent in the World Cup is dominating in the powerplay overs with both bat and ball. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have picked wickets in the powerplay while Rohit Sharma has been provided great starts consistently with the bat.

In this World Cup, Ahmedabad has not seen so much of new ball movement, as per a report in ESPNcricinfo. Tha brings us to our topic of discussion: Should India give he new ball to Shami and open with him and Bumrah? That means Mohammed Siraj comes in as next change. Siraj is a swing bowler and if there is no swing on offer, does giving the new ball to him makes sense?

A milestone-filled evening for Mohd. Shami __

Drop a __ for #TeamIndia's leading wicket-taker in #CWC23 _#MenInBlue | #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/JkIigjhgVA — BCCI (@BCCI) November 15, 2023

Also, Shami is a hit-the-deck kind of bowler. He extracts movement off the surface. Shami has been excellent bowling round the stumps to the left-handed batters. Remember Ben Stokes' struggles, not too long ago? With Australia opening with two left-handed batters in Travis Head and David Warner, Shami's new-ball spell could turn out to be differentiator as he can get rid of these two early. Head is a dangeroud batter but has weakness outside the off stump. If Shami can use his weakness to his advantage and push him to play outside the reach of his hands, he could get him.

Shami has picked 8 wickets off 52 balls in this World Cup after giving just 32 runs. He is also the leading wicket-taker among all bowlers in the powerplay with 8 scalps. Australia's Josh Hazlewood is next best with 7 wickets and India need to watch out for him. Especially, Rohit Sharma should play Hazlewood carefully. He had got the Hitman with a knee-roll length. That's why Rohit may want to come down the wicket to smash him for boundaries straightaway.

Australia have taken 13 wickets in the powerplay as against India's 21. Mitchel Starc is erractic if he does not find the swing, very much like India's Siraj. They both get hit for runs. Starc and Siraj's roles needs to change in Ahmedabad where swing may not be there again. If Starc opens, he will look to bowl more yorkers and fuller length deliveries to check if he is getting the swing, and if he does not get any, think Cummins wil straightaway come into the attack.