India vs South Africa 2022, 2nd T20I: Bowlers must rise to the occasion for India

With the new-look bowling department coming a cropper against an in-form South Africa batting line-up, especially the duo of David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen, Pant will hope to leave the ground with a smile on his face on Sunday night. But for that to happen, they need to get their act together in the bowling department, led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the absence of the likes of Bumrah and Shami. Bhuvi has his task cut out as the senior pro in the bowling unit which comprises youngsters like Avesh Khan, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi besides Harshal Patel, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal. Bhuvi is quite aware of his role as a leader of the young lot.

“Yes, in absence of them (Shami, Bumrah), I try to take up responsibility, focus on improving in every match before going to the T20 World Cup,” said the seamer. “As a bowling unit, we had an off day but that’s okay. We just want to come back in the next match. We are aware that we didn’t bowl well in the first match. So we hope to improve, bowl well and level the series. We still have four matches to go,” Bhuvneshwar said.

Read AlsoIndia vs South Africa 2022: Ishan Kishan underlines India’s new, more aggressive batting approach

The Indian team is thinking of veering away from its conservative approach to T20 batting. The T20 World Cup is barely five months away. And Ishan Kishan has become the face of the ultra-aggressive brand of batting that India aspires to play in the World Cup. Ishan has to set the tempo up front for

Bhuvi himself didn’t have a good game at Kotla. The bowlers’ inability to defend 211 will make the team management and the captain wonder whether to go for a couple of changes as IPL finds Umran and Arshdeep are waiting in the wings. Bhuvi