ICC T20 World Cup | Taken note of India's struggles against spin: Ryan Burl

Chennai: Zimbabwe all-rounder Ryan Burl on Wednesday said his team has taken note of Indian batters’ struggles against spin, especially off-spin, in this ICC T20 World Cup and they would be looking to exploit it in a must-win game for either side in a Super Eights clash on Thursday.

“It's something that we have taken into account. Obviously, we've done our homework and it's something that we would be silly to ignore going into tomorrow's game,” said Burl at the pre-match press conference at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

“It's also about the match-ups. You know, what are their strengths, what are our strengths and how can we expose maybe any small little advantages that we have in our favour. So, yeah, it's something that we do have to take into account.

Although India are smarting from the South Africa defeat and things are unravelling badly for them, Burl reckoned playing the Men In Blue at home is one of cricket’s biggest challenges. “We don't get to play India a lot, so it's something that we really have been looking forward to and we will grab the opportunity with both hands. Playing India in India is a challenge in itself. 

“They obviously got a home ground advantage, but the added pressure of both teams needing to win tomorrow's game. Pressure does funny things to teams. And obviously, it being a World Cup, there's that added pressure as well. We've obviously got our processes that we want to go through. And hopefully, we can execute those tomorrow.

“India has also got that firepower where they obviously go really hard in the Power Play and if they don't lose wickets, they've got guys that can go hard throughout. So I think obviously looking to try and take wickets. Taking wickets is obviously one of the biggest momentum breakers and obviously kills their strike rates and economy. So that's obviously one way of going about it.”

Burl felt their towering lead pacer Blessing Muzarabani, who has had an outstanding tournament with 11 wickets, could be the X-factor against India. “The success that he has had with the ball has been amazing. It's not something that has only just come about now. He has been doing this in international cricket previously. He's obviously someone that we really do, we're really happy having in our squad. 

“At 6’9" he does kind of come a little bit from beyond the perpendicular. So jagging the ball back into the righties and across the lefties with that steep bounce does propose quite a lot of a challenge for the batters. So I'm a lot happier knowing that he's on my team and not on the opposition.”