ICC World T20 2016 Fantasy Guru: The South African rush (updated for Ind-Pak)

Hi Boss,

Australian top order make-up: Expect Shane Watson to open the innings with Aaron Finch. They will be followed by Steve Smith at 3 and David Warner at 4 with a bit of flexibility that could even lead to Smith not getting a proper hit out in the middle.

Hat-trick effect: Josh Hazlewood might well have confirmed his place in the final XI with the hat-trick against West Indies in the practice game, and that leaves Nathan Coulter-Nile and John Hastings competing for one spot.

New Zealand team combination: There has been no word on that, but surely they aren’t playing 3 spinners again?

The Dharamsala deck: The curators have confirmed of a new deck, different from the one we saw in the qualifiers. This one is expected to have a lot of runs in it.

Faf du Plessis vs Hashim Amla: Ah... Quite a headache, boss. In his last 2 T20I innings, Amla has scores of 69* and 97*, against England and Australia respectively. Even in general, he averages 30 in T20s. Du Plessis, on the other hand, seems to have got back on track after a temporary form-struggle with scores of 40, 79 and 65* in his last 5 T20 innings. And the Proteas captain, with a T20I average of 39.80, borders on being crazy in this format.

You better take my advice on this: pick both of them, like I have done for my team. But I play with no transfer limits (you should try that). No? Ok. Let’s just hope Amla gets dropped then.

Schedule Mantra Round 2: South Africa play twice in 3 matches.

Regards,

Smoak and Co.

Australia vs New Zealand

Transfers made – 2; Transfers left – 11

Dinesh Chandimal out – Shane Watson in

Dushmantha Chameera out – Martin Guptill/Mitchell Santner in (based on the deck)

Captain – Shane Watson

When Shane Watson is fit to bowl, I really don’t see any valid reason to leave him out. For Aaron Finch to produce something of note, there shouldn’t be any swing, seam or spin. At the first sight of any of these, he will start struggling and give it away.

David Warner would have been an automatic pick if he opens the innings, but at No.4, not so much. Steven Smith has been putting together pretty decent T20 knocks, but nothing you will regret for leaving him out. There is also a danger of him demoting himself for a possible Warner move to No.3.

Glenn Maxwell at 5 isn’t something that interests me. For him to click, the top order needs to flop, which I don’t see happening. While James Faulkner and John Hastings could well be amongst the wickets, Nathan Coulter-Nile is Australia’s best bowling bet. He can bowl at the death, has the right pace and can extract bounce from the surface. Josh Hazlewood doesn’t usually bowl at the latter stage of a match, which reduces his fantasy potential.

M Guptill could well tee off today

As far as New Zealand are concerned, any of the top 4 can go crazy. I have Kane Williamson and Colin Munro already in my team; I am tempted to bring in Martin Guptill, a move that will be made only after I get a final confirmation on the pitch.

The Kiwi spin trio did exceptionally well against India, but, again, their performance will based on what kind of track they are bowling on. Mitchell Santner is easily the best fantasy pick among them, with his batting skills, but I wouldn’t really have him unless the deck assists spin.

Don’t use more than 2 subs here anyway, with Shane Watson being one of them (this is considering you have a couple of Kiwi players in your team already).

South Arica vs England

Transfers made – 4 (5 if Aus vs NZ game gets rained off); Transfers left – 7(8)

Kane Williamson out – Quinton de Kock in

Colin Munro out – AB de Villiers in

Shane Watson out – Kagiso Rabada in

Martin Guptill/Mitchell Santner out – Imran Tahir in

Captain – Quinton de Kock/De Villiers (if he opens)

There are some outrageous team combination theories being floated around for South Africa. But no one in their right minds drops De Kock on a flat bed. Ideally, you should be expecting De Kock, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers to form the team’s top 4, but don’t be surprised if you see Amla missing out despite his recent exploits. South Africa seem to prefer De Villiers opening.

Whichever way, I would pick De Kock and De Villiers. De Kock’s secondary scoring option could come in very handy. Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir make their way in as well. I see a total of at least 4 wickets for them in the two matches.

It’s quite impossible to say which one of Amla and Du Plessis will click. While Du Plessis is clearly a better T20 player, Amla gets the first shot at things and in situations like a low target-chase against Afghanistan, the opening duo could hunt down a lot of them. Also, there will be no issues with a likely De Villiers-promotion if the first wicket partnership lasts long.

If I decide to use a fifth sub here, being someone who believes in method than results, I will go with Amla. Hoping that De Kock or Amla gets out early isn't how I play the game.

India vs Pakistan

Transfers made – 2; Transfers left – 5

Jos Buttler out – Virat Kohli in

Alex Hales out – Rohit Sharma in

Captain - Virat Kohli

With Ahmed Shehzad, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Amir already in my team, on what will be good batting wicket, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the only other players who interest me for this match.

Shahid Afridi happens once in a while, and it would be naive to expect that to be repeated, that too against India. While Mohammad Hafeez did look in good touch, proving his warm-up show wasn't going to be one-off, India are not going to bowl as badly as Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. Either way, the best case scenario here happens to be 50-odd runs – not worth a substitution

As predicted, Pakistan’s middle order flexibility cost dearly for those who had Shoaib Malik during the last match against Bangladesh. I find no reason why I should change my mind now; he stays out.

As far as India are concerned, I don't have the number of substitutions required to gamble on Shikhar Dhawan at this stage. Rohit’s T20I record against Pakistan is pretty poor, with only 60 runs in 6 matches. But if you ask him to pick one ground in the world to change it around, he would go with Eden Gardens – all he has to do is escape Amir’s first couple of overs.

Suresh Raina could get roughed up by pace. Yuvraj Singh bats too low. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ashish Nehra could well pick up a couple of wickets, but they don’t really have a strong case to be picked on this deck.