Indian bowlers had a field day as they dismissed Ireland for only 96 runs, but Rohit Sharma and his team-mates who are Indian experienced players are aware that when playing against Mohammed Amir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, and Shaheen Shah Afridi in their crucial T20 World Cup match on Sunday at New York things will be very different.
To give top-order hitters accurate match simulations, the coaching staff at Cantiague Park in Long Islands turned three of the six drop-in practice strips into abrasive ones with cracks.
Clearly if South African nets are used in a morning session on similar tracks, it means The Indian squad is ready to dominate on double bounce wickets.
However none of the best Proteas hitters wanted any part of Anrich Nortje or Kagiso Rabada thunderbolts before facing Holland.
Nonetheless the Indian players embraced these challenging conditions and utilized them to prepare themselves for taking on Pakistani attack at venues where teams have failed to score 100 runs in four out of the last six innings played.
There were no half-measures for India captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and others during a three-hour afternoon session against Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Mohammed Siraj.
The first batters into the net were Suryakumar Yadav, Pant and Kohli. They faced Arshdeep, Bumrah, Siraj and Khaleel as well as throwdown experts who kept putting it into hard length regularly.
Managing this skewed bounce that was clearly evident from those warm-up throws was these batsmen ’s prime worry.
Rohit’s reaction to being hit by one such throwdown cut to his thumb did not change as Indian batters worked long hours in practice aiming to counter-bounce which could assist Pakistan’s pace attack.
And the delivery jagging from just back of length hit Rohit’s left thumb as he was receiving left-arm throwdowns from Nuwan Seneviratne.
There was a moment when the Indian captain seemed uncomfortable, but he shrugged it off and carried on batting. Then Rohit moved across to the other end of the pitch for some throw-downs.
The drop-in tracks at Nassau County cricket ground have come under severe criticism because of its unpredictable bounce which is caused by broad cracks rolled evenly across the surface.
In 50 over games, Kuldeep Yadav is an excellent match up against Pakistani batsmen who are spin-weary. However, it remains to be seen if India would rather opt for him in place of Axar Patel somewhere during middle overs.
Based on Babar Azam’s strike-rate of slightly above 112 against orthodox left-arm spinners, Axar’s line-to-leg darting arm deliveries could be very effective.
Kuldeep along with other spinners like Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal had a long session in nets. It is surprising that Kuldeep missed out on playing XI for India’s opening game vs Ireland.
They were observed playing plenty of cross-batted shots including sweeps and reverse sweeps against spinners.
With Kohli joining them for his second stint of the day, Jadeja and Shivam Dube took turns batting as the nets session terminated.
They engaged in a friendly game of football and bonding, which helped to lighten up the mood after practice.
