Wicket-taking bowling is the way to go for Shikha Pandey

Ever since India selected only three seam-bowling options in Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar and Arundhati Reddy, it was debated whether the right call was made and will it mean additional burden on Pandey as the frontline seamer. But the senior bowler has revelled in the role and is targeting bowling the wicket-taking lengths.

“As an opening bowler, I’m obviously thinking about the early breakthroughs and that doesn’t change,” said Pandey, who is India’s fifth-highest T20I wicket-taker.

“In the first six, we are trying to take wickets and then it’s about containing the batters before coming back and bowling the best you can in the death overs. I would say 150 is now a par score in a T20 game, so the first six overs batters actually get a lot of freedom and try to hit as many runs as possible. You just have to stay in the moment and change your lengths according to the wicket and the conditions.”

India will take on Australia in the T20 World Cup opener and their aim is to extend Alyssa Healy’s woeful run with the bat. In their last clash, it was Deepti Sharma, who often opens the bowling with Pandey, who got rid of the Australian wicketkeeper-batter. Pandey, who played all the matches in the tri-series, returned with just three wickets. She had to re-adjust her lengths after not getting the desired amount of swing.

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“In the tri-series, I was not getting the kind of in-swing that I ideally want,” she said.

“I actually had to change my lengths, I was trying to bowl the hard length and in-between mixing it up, because if you aren’t going to be bowling to your strengths sometimes it becomes easier to hit. We also try to get slower balls going and to do that you have to get into a rhythm first. No-one comes and bowls a slower ball first up, so it’s when you’ve got going that you try those change ups. Our fast-bowling coach for the tri-series helped us a lot in terms of assessing the batters’ mindset and it’s about a combination of everything. I’d say mixing it up is the mantra right now.”

The first match of the T20 World Cup is on Friday (February 21), in which Australia take on India at the Sydney Showground.