However, despite the looming rain, India will try to beat England in the 2022 WC semis while hoping for a draw.
GEORGETOWN: In most parts of the West Indies, people still walk on foot on their way to a plane. This is fun under good weather but can be problematic when it rains heavily at night and one has to run either towards or from an airplane.
On Tuesday evening, Georgetown received a small plane with about eighty passengers who were mainly T20 World Cup participants; they all met by falling showers. Amongst the passengers who ran for shelter could be identified tall Australian referee Tucker Rod running along. “Will you be officiating?” someone asked Tucker. And he just laughed “Well yes…if that.”
“If it happens.” That’s what everyone is saying as India gets ready to take on England in Rohan Kanhai land this Thursday.
In Guyana, it has been raining for the last few days and it hasn’t stopped yet into Wednesday morning. What locals trust is that if it rains on one day, the ensuing day should be dry. Nevertheless, it’s always a close call when the forecast for Thursday is like this.
But perhaps the only people who don’t care are Indian supporters who have tickets to see their team play in Barbados on Saturday and didn’t get any to watch in semi-finals here. India will go through to play in the final if there is no game due to rain since they went ahead of their Super 8 group.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has changed the timing by extending it up to four hours compared to what had been prescribed earlier but before all that takes place; everyone hopes that after all these showers stops falling. “During this rain period in Guyana why was this game even scheduled here? Even without any reserve day,” an anguished local wondered.
However, the Indian team which stands to gain most from a continuous downpour is not in favour of this arrangement. Having finished a practice session at the fast-drying Providence Stadium after a morning drizzle on match eve, captain Rohit Sharma said: “We are not looking at a curtailed game. We shall come tomorrow and wish to play a full game but if it does happen then we will adjust our tactics.”
The emotional stakes for Team India are high too because, this is their chance of getting back at the team that humiliated them during the 2022 T20 World Cup semis. Nevertheless, Rohit insists that “not much has changed” despite Jasprit Bumrah’s return; he was absent from that World Cup due to injury.
“We have mulled, debated and rehashed what needs to be done numerous times. It’s all about keeping it alive,” the captain remarked.
Besides Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav has turned out to be another great inclusion ever since India set foot in the West Indies. His quality and craftiness will almost certainly pose serious problems for most opponents and England should not be any different.
However, the defending champions have some fire power with Buttler Jos, Salt Phil and other members of the team returning to form. Three of their spinners who may benefit from spin-friendly conditions in Guyana include Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, and Liam Livingstone but a reduced game would probably be England’s best chance if you asked ardent fans of English cricket.
On current form, India are much superior to India, but if it’s a shorter game this will change into something else. This becomes quite a shootout and with rain in the air and Messers Duckworth, Lewis and Stern calling the shots, toss too becomes important.
India itself knows that it also has these variables to deal with because that’s cricket these days when there is a 365-day calendar for cricket. Rohit and Co., as they chase their first ICC silverware since 2013, must believe that they are good enough for anything that comes.
WEATHER UPDATE
Guyana will be cloudy on Thursday with a 75% chance of rain. Although conditions during match hours would be slightly better, heavy rainfall before its start can spoil everything. Many hours could go wasted due to inadequate stadium drainage systems.
There is no reserve day for this game. However, play can extend to 4 hours 10 minutes in-order to complete the game . Incase of washout India goes through.
TACTICS BOARD
BE READY FOR SPIN: Providence Stadium has been a spinner’s paradise with low bounce and sharp turn. For India, it is good news because in their last games here spinners have given away less than seven runs an over – that gives them a really good chance of the three Indian spinners: Axar, Kuldeep, and Jadeja. England also come into this day game with Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone.
EXPECT DIFFICULT BOUNCE: In the previous WC game at this venue, WI struggled to chase PNG’s 137 due to some inconsistent bounce. The ball will not come on easily for the batsmen and there might be some tricky conditions on offer.
EMBRACE POWER PLAY RISK: It was exactly what India didn’t do in Adelaide previously. When Rohit Sharma can repeat his heroics against Australia then it is all that is needed in order for victory to be guaranteed.
UNLEASH FIREPOWER AT MIDDLE-OVERS: On paper, England have more hitters of sixes but Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Shivam Dube are dangerous middle order batters for India.
BANISH KNOCKOUT NERVES: They traditionally struggle in knockout rounds – like most teams do at times; however, even this new ECB white-ball set-up is under pressure following the failure to defend the ODI World Cup last year.
