Captain Kohli explains Amit Mishra's inclusion in the T20 side

Indian leg-break bowler Amit Mishra has a fairly good reputation in T20’s. Playing for India, Mishra has scalped 14 wickets from 8 matches at an economy of 6.40. His last T20I game came against West Indies at Floride, and his previous one was in the year 2014, in the World T20 in Bangladesh, where he finished as the second highest wicket-taker for India.

In the recently concluded T20I game against England, young leggie Yuzvendra Chahal got a nod ahead of Mishra. Chahal picked up two wickets in his first over during the game at Kanpur and finished with figures of 2/27. The Haryana veteran was added to the side along with Parvez Rasool, to fill up for Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja (both were rested for the 3-match T20I series).

Kohli has always been vocal about his support towards Mishra. The leggie has 64 wickets from 36 ODI matches, at an average of 23.60 and a miser economy of 4.72. Post the loss at the hands of Eoin Morgan’s men, Kohli said, “He (Mishra) has done well and that is why he is in the side. You could say we were traveling from the West Indies (in August) so we did not have that much time on hand but he has done well in the IPL. In 2014 World T20, he did really well. It was unfortunate that he was not part of the squad in the 2016 edition. He is a guy with variation and is any day useful on a bare wicket.”

Rasool too did a decent job, picking up the vital wicket of England captain Eoin Morgan (51 off 38 balls). England won the game by 7 wickets, and both the sides will now be facing each other at Nagpur on 29th January. Mishra is likely to sit out for the next T20I game, as both (Chahal and Rasool) may get another look in the series.

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