SHOWDOWN OF SUPERHEROES

Acid test for superstar captains Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers

London, June 10: Virat Kohli will be facing the toughest battle of his nascent ODI captaincy career when defending champions India take on South Africa in a do-or-die virtual ‘quarter-final’ of the ICC Champions Trophy, here on Sunday.

Their confidence shaken after Sri Lanka effortlessly out-batted them in a high-scoring encounter, the Indian team and Kohli in particular will be keen to ensure that South Africa are continued to be known as “chokers”. Call it irony, if India lose the game, it will be defending champions making an exit even before the semi-final. If the Proteas lose, then the current No.1 ranked ODI side would be ousted before the last four stage.

A defeat will have the skeptics blaming the speculated off-the-field issues for the a performance. In such a backdrop, Kohli will be under huge pressure with margin of error being next to nil.

For AB de Villiers, it will be an opportunity to prove that self-imposed exile from five-day game has not affected his limited overs skills. With three quality left-handers — Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and David Miller — in the South African line-up, Kohli can’t afford to keep Ravichandran Ashwin in cold storage.

More so after knowing what can happen to Ravindra Jadeja when there is absolutely nothing in the strip. Ashwin atleast has some natural variations, including the offbreak which is his stock ball. The proud performer that he is, Ashwin will be smarting after being excluded in the first two games and it can only work positively in India’s favour.

However, skipper Kohli’s leadership acumen and understanding of the current situation will be under scrutiny depending upon the kind of playing XI he opts for the next game.

Ashwin’s entry into the playing XI looks logical but he certainly won’t replace Jadeja as two spinners are likely to play against the Proteas, who are not known to be comfortable against slow bowlers. The other big factor is Jadeja’s electric fielding inside the circle and the powerful arm from anywhere at the boundary line. — PTI

AB de VilliersMorkel the menace Morne Morkel has got Shikhar Dhawan four times in 77 balls for 44 runs, Virat Kohli three times in 104 balls for 68 runs and MS Dhoni three times in 77 balls for 47 runs.