India begins their Twenty20 World cup campaign against minnows Scotland

Sep 13: The Indian team will commence their Twenty20 World cup campaign against lowly Scotland, after a gruelling tour of Ireland and England which lasted over two months, at the Kingsmead in Durban later tonight.

All eyes will be on the men in blue as they take on the field in their opening match against Scots. People back home are expecting a lot from the young Indian side, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They have to perform extremely well this time around leaving behind the blemishes of early exit from the ODI World cup this year, to keep afloat the faith and hopes of the cricket lovers alive in the country.

Indian team is playing here without their regular big stars Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, who opted to give a miss to this slam bang version of the game as it needs much agility and resilience that too in a shorter burst, which they are certainly lacking as age is not running on their side.

The major problem of the Indian captain Dhoni and the think-tank will be to pick the final eleven for today’s encounter. Indeed, when you have seniors like Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar and Dinesh Karthik competing for spots in the first eleven against the likes of Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth and Yusuf Pathan respectively, it is not easy to make your pick.

"We are playing the second World Cup in this year but what happened in the West Indies is history. This is a fresh start and I want my team to enjoy the game," captain Dhoni said in a television interview.

"The good thing about this team is that 12 of our 15 players can bat and bowl. That gives us lots of options. We have a young and determined side and we are fortunate enough to have 3-4 good finishers in the team," Dhoni said.

“We are not going to take Scotland easily as you never know anything can happen in this version of the game”, he added.

Indian team might choose to bat first if the coin will turn on in their favour, as batting always remains their strength and off late they have a tag of bad chasers also. Moreover the team which bats first and post a big total can come back with a sound strategy to defend their total and in addition they will already have the feel of the pitch.

The Kingsmead ground is slightly livelier than Wanderers and with Durban being windy; it will certainly be a testing time for the men in blue. Indian team will try to pack their side with as much as utility all-rounders as regular bowlers are also facing the music in the ongoing tournament. You never know it might prove handy for captain Dhoni to lead his team towards victory.

On the other hand, there is a possible chance that Scotland bowlers will be whacked around the park by Najafgarh’s Nawab Virender Sehwag who is in quest of runs, since he is making a comeback in the international arena and wanted to prove to Indian selectors and to regain his lost regal touch, to stage a return in the ODI’s and Test teams using this Twenty20 platform.

The Scotland game might be a loosener, although Ryan Watson’s men put up a decent showing against Pakistan in their opening game on Wednesday. All in all with Durban home away from home for the Indians in South Africa the exciting encounter is on the cards.

History: Both the teams have not played any match against each other.

India Squad (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Joginder Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, R P Singh, S Sreesanth.

Scotland Squad (from): Ryan Watson (capt), John Blain, Doughie Brown, Gordon Drummond, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Ross Lyons, Gregor Maiden, Neil Mccallum, Dewald Nel, Qasim Sheikh, Colin Smith, Fraser Watts, Craig Wright.