Brad Hogg, like many Indian fans, is expecting a debutant in the Indian top-order.
Former Australian left-arm-unorthodox spinner Brad Hogg has called Suryakumar Yadav India's 360-degree player and believes he should be a certainty against England.
Mumbai and Mumbai Indians batsman Suryakumar Yadav and his IPL teammate Ishan Kishan have earned their maiden call-ups to the Indian T20I side. Suryakumar had to wait long to get an opportunity to play for India and Hogg believes that his time has come.
Hogg called the 30-year-old hard to bowl to because of his aggressive batting style and the 360-degree range to play his shots. Apart from using his bottom-hand well to play straight down the ground, Suryakumar doesn't fear to play the scoop shots to pacers over the wicketkeeper's head.
Brad Hogg said on his YouTube channel, “Suryakumar Yadav... he's got to play in there because he's an aggressive batsman, plays 360 degree and is hard to bowl to.”
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He also put thought into the home side’s team balance for the first T20I on Friday, March 12. Hogg put it out there that Akshar Patel should be in the playing XI as the English batsmen didn’t bring out the sweep shot against him in the recently concluded Test series.
He also has the height advantage over Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar.
The 50-year-old said, “Will India go with Sundar and Chahal? Those two don't have a taller height like Ashwin or Akshar Patel. So will India go with two of those particular bowlers or three spinners? I would go with Akshar Patel because he's got the height.”
“The English batsmen previous weren't prepared to sweep him. So Patel's got to play. Will they go with three spinners and have Hardik Pandya as the third seamer… that will be the big question,” he added.