India outplayed Ireland to register a brilliant 8-wicket victory in their opening game of T20 World Cup 2024 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York on June 5. However, a bigger challenge awaits Rohit Sharma and Co. now as they are set to face arch-rivals Pakistan at the same venue on Sunday, June 9. So far the surface at the venue has offered vicious bounce to the bowlers, especially pacers. This makes Pakistan a tough opponent, despite the side suffering an embarrassing defeat to United States in its opening game.
The likes of Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf must be eager to make life tough for the Indian batters on the pitch. Vary of the danger ahead, the batters of Indian team, including captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, prepared themselves with some special training.
Rohit and the senior pros know that against the Pakistan pacers the challenge will be very different when compared to Ireland. And hence, the coaching staff made three of the six drop-in practice strips at the Cantiague Park in Long Islands into abrasive ones with cracks to ensure proper match-simulation for top-order batters, stated a PTI report.
The Indian team’s determination to dominate on tracks with dual bounce was evident if one cites an example of South African nets in the morning session on same tracks.
While Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje sent down their thunderbolts, none of the top Proteas batters wanted to risk getting injured ahead of the game against the Netherlands.
In contrast, their Indian counterparts embraced the testing conditions, using them to prepare for the upcoming challenge of facing the Pakistani attack on tracks where teams haven’t crossed the 100-run mark in four out of six innings.
There were no half-measures for the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli and others during a three-hour afternoon session where they faced Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Mohammed Siraj.
Kohli, Pant and Suryakumar Yadav were the first Indian batters to hit the nets. They faced the likes of Arshdeep, Bumrah, Siraj, Khaleel along with the throwdown specialists who were hitting the hard length on a consistent basis.
For the batters, the focus was on negotiating the uneven bounce which was very much evident on those practice pitches.
Against spinners, the batters were seen playing quite a few cross-batted shots like sweeps and reverse-sweeps.
As the nets session drew to a close, Jadeja and Shivam Dube took their turns batting, with Kohli joining them for his second stint of the day.
The practice concluded with a team bonding session, as players relaxed and enjoyed a game of football, fostering a lighter atmosphere.
(With PTI Inputs)
