India’s left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh showed great skills with the new ball during the New York leg of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, as he earned the ‘Player of the Match’ award against the United States of America for his excellent figures of 4/9 in his four overs.
The way he has found the right line and length with early swing has been exceptional in this tournament. He started with a first-ball wicket of the game of opener Shayan Jahangir, becoming the very first Indian player to do so in the shortest format of the game.
In the competition so far, Arshdeep Singh was playing the second fiddle role of Jasprit Bumrah, India’s premier bowler, but finally, he received all the applause from fans around the world.
‘Arshdeep Singh’s temperament is fantastic’- Sunil Gavaskar
The Punjab Kings bowler, Arshdeep Singh was coming into the ninth edition of the tournament on the back of his poor Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, where even though he earned 19 wickets that came at an expanse of 10.03 economy in 14 innings.
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The left-arm pacer was getting those wickets in the powerplay, but because he was going for so many runs, the pressure was building constantly on the opponents, who kept on bashing the other bowlers. But in this T20 World Cup he has shown how lethal he could be in any phase of the game.
The 25-year-old is now the joint third-highest wicket-taker of the competition with seven scalps in three innings at an average of 10.71, and an economy of 6.25. Even against Pakistan at the same ground, he showed great resistance and held his nerve pretty well to bowl the last over, and carried them over the line.
At the end of India’s game against the United States, the former India opener Sunil Gavaskar, while discussing the performances of Arshdeep Singh on Star Sports, praised the bowler’s skill to swing the ball both ways just like Bumrah does. He also shows his interest in watching the seamer in the Test team shortly.
‘He looked to bowl at hard lengths, looking to get the ball into the right-hander, and a little away for the left-handers.’ The former India captain Sunil Gavaskar advocated on Star Sports at the end of the game. ‘That’s been his strength, to be able to get both those deliveries on the spot and he wasn’t looking to bowl too many yorkers today, he was looking to bowl the hard lengths. And his temperament is fantastic.’
The Madhya Pradesh-born bowler has featured in 16 first-class games where he has picked up 49 scalps at an average of 31.97 and a strike rate of 59.6. It’s quite surprising that even after making his FC debut back in 2019 against Vidarbha, Arshdeep Singh hasn’t played many Tests.
This could be for many reasons, like being with the India team on different tours when the Ranji season generally starts, or perhaps to keep him fresh for the national duties. But India’s long-lusting wish of a left-arm seamer with the red ball could be fulfilled by the 25-year-old.
Gavaskar feels that if the bowler could swing the ball that much with the white ball, he could be seriously dangerous with the red cherry.
‘I do believe that he, like, Bumrah can be a very, very good bowler in red-ball cricket as well. Because if he can move the white ball so well, just imagine what he can do with the red ball.’ The veteran expressed in the same discussion. ‘So, I think the selection committee would do very well to look at him as an option for the red-ball game as well.’
India will now move to Florida for their last group game on June 15 against Canada.