India vs Namibia: Abhishek’s health scare causes worry

Abhishek Sharma’s stomach infection poses a bigger threat to India than their World Cup opponents Namibia.After a stuttering batting performance on a tacky Wankhede track in the opener against the USA, the Indian batting line-up would like to go all guns blazing on a Feroz Shah Kotla track that could be called a belter for quality teams.

At the receiving end would be Namibia, who are not expected to cause much trouble to the dominant defending champions in their second group A game of the T20 showpiece here on Thursday.

When it comes to quality, the defending champions are light years ahead of the African team which hardly looked up to scratch against fellow Associate nation the Netherlands at this very ground. To be fair to India, the match against Namibia is more of an extended warm up tie where they would like to bat first and let the line-up get a good hit in the middle.

The gulf in quality is such that Namibia’s bowling line-up could be sent on a leather-hunt every day of the week by any of the middle level Indian state teams plying their trade in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

For India, Abhishek’s hospitalisation with a stomach infection and viral fever is concerning.

Even if he is discharged on Wednesday, it won’t be advisable to put him on the park without allowing him to sufficiently recuperate before the big game against Pakistan on Sunday, where Abhishek’s presence is a crucial intimidating factor for the opposition.

The Namibia match could be a God-sent opportunity for an out-of-form Sanju Samson to get into run-scoring mode after a string of failures that saw him lose his place to Ishan Kishan, who is going through a purple patch.