Game-changers are those who score more than 2 per ball: Navjot Sidhu

New York, June 8

Former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu believes that the word game-changer should not be thrown around loosely in T20 cricket as only those who can score at least two runs per ball deserve to be described like that.

Strike rates were a hot topic during the IPL last month and also amid the low-scoring games of the ongoing T20 World Cup here.

“See, game changers are those who will score 2 runs in a ball,” Sidhu said on ‘Star Sports Press Room’.

“You are talking about strike rates, 1.5, 1.7, but there are some people who are scoring 2.5 runs, three runs per ball. There are some people who in the end will come and score in 10 balls, a 35. Now that is the quality,” he pointed out.

“That 35 in ten balls, if two people score and support someone like Virat Kohli, is a game-changer. Make no mistake about it,” he added.

Sidhu said in the current Indian team Shivam Dube and Axar Patel have what it takes to be game-changers.

“…you look at the IPL and you look at the T20 format, those who can actually score a 2.5 per ball or above two per ball are the real game-changers. There are so many of them.

“There is Ravindra Jadeja, there is Dube, and even Axar also scores the runs in the same pace. Why is (MS) Dhoni such a great finisher, because his strike rate is 2.5, his strike rate at times is 4 per ball.

“That is the real game changing effect in the game of cricket in T-20. It’s a different skill altogether, the skill to clear the ground.”

Talking about the blockbuster India-Pakistan T20 World Cup clash on Sunday, Sidhu said while he would have preferred a Rohit Sharma-Yashasvi Jaiswal combination for opening, he can understand why Kohli has been paired with the skipper.

“…they have changed the combination because then Dube and Axar wouldn’t have got the opportunity to play, so they have made this combination for a correct composition where Axar is batting at No. 8, especially in this pitch where bowlers have an advantage,” he said.

“If the tournament would have opened in West Indies, then we would have seen Rohit and Yashasvi opening the match, there you wouldn’t have needed the sixth or the seventh bowler.

“You can’t expect 200 runs in this pitch, 130 or 140 runs would be good, and this combination will work.”