Can Proteas' golden arm Aiden Markram continue India's Abishek Sharma's horror T20 World Cup run?

Proteas coach Shukri Conrad may call on the golden arms of captain Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs in the Powerplay for the blockbuster ICC T20 World Cup Super Eights clash against India at Ahmedabad on Sunday. 

India have rolled through the group stages unbeaten with four victories from four starts - identical to the Proteas - but have shown a vulnerability against finger-spinners. 

The make-up of the defending champions’ batting line-up with six left-hand batters in their first-choice top eight has almost forced the opposition to bowl plenty of off-spin against them early on. 

The Proteas, in their preparation for the rematch of the 2024 T20 World Cup final, would have noticed the success Namibia’s Gerhard Erasmus, Pakistan’s Saim Ayub and Dutch off-spinner Aryan Dutt have all enjoyed against the hosts. 

India’s most prolific batter leading into the T20 World Cup, the World’s No 1 ranked Abishek Sharma, has been the biggest victim. 

Sharma has endured a nightmarish T20 World Cup thus far, having yet to get off the mark, having been dismissed for three consecutive ducks - twice to off-spin bowlers. 

The Proteas specialist spinners are the left-arm duo of Keshav Maharaj and George Linde, but it is to Markram and likely the mercurial Stubbs that Conrad may sway towards. 

Markram has bowled on two occasions in this T20 World Cup already, but neither has been during the Powerplay with the skipper regularly introducing himself into the attack between the 9th and 11th overs.

The probability of Markram taking the new ball is high, although India would have prepared for that match-up. 

"Teams are getting clever now. Teams are bowling a lot of finger-spin to us because of the many left-handers in our line-up," India’s South African-born batting coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted.

"It's something we're going to have to focus on, like I said, with the amount of finger spin we're going to get in the next three games. 

"We are going to come up against New Zealand. They've got a few guys who bowl finger spin and so do the West Indies and so does South Africa if you include Markram. We need to be able to have a game plan to deal with that threat."

The joker in the pack may be Stubbs though. The 25-year-old has not bowled at the T20 World Cup thus far, and is very much a part-time option, but he showed at various times during the Betway SA20 that he is capable of prizing a golden wicket early on. 

Abishek Sharma’s scalp would be first-prize as it almost feels that India’s top-ranked batter is due for a big score after his previous failures. 

Ten Doeschate has certainly not lost faith in the 25-year-old’s ability, who missed the Namibia game due to a stomach infection.

"He batted really well last night in the nets (on the eve of Netherlands game). He spent 90 minutes batting. I think we've also got to give him a bit of space. He came into the prep phase not feeling well, obviously spent a few days in hospital and then missed the game," the former Dutch international said.