Preview: Rejuvenated India go up against spirited Netherlands

India won back-to-back series against Australia and South Africa at home ahead of this T20 World Cup campaign and also won a warm-up fixture against Australia. But they got a new zeal of energy and motivation from their thrilling win against Pakistan in their opening fixture of this tournament.

At 31/4, India looked completely down and out of the contest. But Virat Kohli played the innings of his career as he powered his team to a four-wicket victory with a magical knock of 82*. Barring the top-order failure, the batting efforts of Kohli and Hardik Pandya stood out. The bowlers also delivered, with Arshdeep Singh bowling a new-ball spell to remember.

Even though the top-order failed to deliver in the last game, it can be looked at as an off-day for them, and it shouldn't really be counted as a major concern to address, considering how they have performed in the matches leading up to this mega event. But India might be seen making changes to their Playing XI in this contest in order to rest their key players for tougher matches.

The likes of Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar appear to be the first names who could be rested, considering their history of injuries and how important they are to India’s plans in this tournament.

Netherlands, on the other hand, will be looking to deliver a competitive performance. They can be proud of the way they have performed in this T20 World Cup, fighting hard in the qualifying stage to make it to the Super 12s and then delivering yet another spirited performance against Bangladesh, where they lost by a narrow margin of nine runs. Their bowlers were on song as they restricted Bangladesh to 144 but the batting unit couldn’t live up to the expectations.

Colin Ackermann tried his best to guide his side home with a fighting knock of 62 but he got little support from the other batters to help him through. Max O’Dowd did well in the qualifying stage and Netherlands need him to fire once again in this contest to compete against India.

Bas de Leede was in superb batting form ahead of this tournament but he hasn’t been able to deliver here so far, albeit doing quite nicely with the ball to be the joint-highest wicket-taker at this point in the tournament. If they are to compete with India, they need more than one of their batters to step up and deliver in this match.

India

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh

Netherlands

Max O'Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackermann, Tom Cooper, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Tim Pringle, Logan van Beek, Shariz Ahmad, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren

Super12 Standings

Virat Kohli: He endured a very tough phase for the last couple of years but he has regained his form now. Kohli scored a century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup and also played a match-winning knock of 82* against Pakistan in their Super12 encounter on Monday. The 33-year-old will have an important role to play in this match once again.

Bas de Leede: The 22-year-old all-rounder has been in great form with the ball, picking up nine wickets at 10.77 runs a piece. However, he hasn't made an impact with the bat yet and he needs to do so in this match as he is a crucial cog in the batting line-up for the Netherlands.

Dream11 Fantasy Picks

**Captaincy Pick:**Virat Kohli

The Indian batting kingpin played the knock of his life during their first match against Pakistan at MCG. Kohli's sublime 82* made a massive difference in India’s chase of160, even though India were reeling at 45/4 at the halfway mark in their innings. Kohli has amassed 533 T20I runs in Australia at an excellent average of 76.14 and a strike rate of 146.03. Currently, the former Indian skipper is third on the list of batters with most runs in the history of the T20 World Cup. He has scored 927 runs in all editions of this competition combined, at an outstanding average of 84.27.

**Must-Have Pick:**Arshdeep Singh

The left-arm seamer had a dream debut in the T20 World Cup during India's four-wicket win against Pakistan. Arshdeep picked up the key wickets of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Asif Ali to finish with figures 3 for 32 from four overs. In Jasprit Bumrah's absence, Arshdeep is taking every opportunity to fill the shoes in the pace department. He has the in-swingers and can also execute the bouncers – as he proved with the dismissals of Rizwan and Asif. Arshdeep has claimed 22 wickets in 14 T20Is so far, at an average of 18.55 and an economy of 8.13

**Differential Pick:**Max O'Dowd

The Netherlands opener can get those crucial runs at the start of the innings and is likely to play a big role against India. O’Dowd has accumulated 1484 runs in 54 T20Is at an average of 30.29 and a strike rate of 123.67, with 10 half-centuries and one hundred. He scored an unbeaten 71 from 53 deliveries against Sri Lanka but couldn't take his side past the finishing line.