Ind-Ire: drop a batsman, bring in Ashwin

The World Cup organisers would not have thought that India's game against Ireland would become such an important affair that it would be unwise to schedule another game on the same day. After Ireland's superlative show against England and with India's bowlers in a philanthropic mood so far, the stage is all set for a battle that promises to overshadow the South Africa-England morning game on Sunday.

 

While some will say that Ireland have already caused the upset of the tournament and the law of averages will now catch up with them, India will still be wary of a team that are high on confidence and know that they have nothing to lose.

There's already some talk about how a spin-friendly strip will be placed at India's service for the Sunday game in Bangalore. But the question is whether India have the bowlers to utilise such a pitch considering that the two spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla have only picked up five wickets between the two of them.

The answer though seems to be in the affirmative. There is R Ashwin, who can bowl tightly, has a lot of variation and can also open the bowling. The question thus is whether skipper MS Dhoni and the team management will be brave enough to drop a batsman and play three spinners.

India have two outings, on Sunday against Ireland and against the Netherlands on Wednesday, to sort out their bowling combination. While the batting order has looked all set, the bowling without the exception of Zaheer Khan has looked at best, ordinary. India have so far gone ahead with the four-bowler theory and it's high time that they get the combination right before they take on South Africa and West Indies in their final two league encounters.

And if reports are to be believed, the India-Ireland tie will see the use of the strip that was used for the warm-up game between India and Australia. That may not be a bad plan as well. After all, there is something called a home advantage and the struggling Indian bowlers could do with all the help right now to get back into form.