Heavy rain may mar India's game against Canada today, offering Rohit Sharma's men a chance to put their feet up before the Super 8 begin in the Caribbean
MIAMI: The Fort Lauderdale beach near Miami beach looks beautiful from a few hundred feet above. But when the pilot gets a round of applause for landing the flight through strong winds and rain, you know immediately that the prospect of any cricket being played here over the next few days is bleak.
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The rains haven't left Florida in the last 72 hours, although its intensity has been a bit up and down. And that's good enough for a washout of most of the matches at Broward Park, which includes India's game against Canada on Saturday.
The sun, though, kept playing hide and seek throughout Friday as the curators worked hard to get the outfield ready. But there were showers predicted later in the afternoon and any more rain in the next 24 hours would allow Rohit Sharma's boys the chance to put their feet up and relax for a couple of days before they head to the West Indies for the real deal, the Super 8 stage.
Most of the Indian players have been playing continuous cricket. Two months of the
IPL have been followed by a difficult New York leg of the T20 World Cup, and this break might not be exactly unwanted. But in an ideal world, the team management would have wanted a practice session and a bit of game time on a decent pitch against a not-so-threatening opposition.
Even though India have won three out of three so far, it hasn't exactly been a cruise. The issue that's going to be a sense of bother for the team management has been the form of
Virat Kohli
, who is India's opener for the tournament. Skipper Rohit Sharma has said that he, along with Kohli, will keep opening, but scores of 1,4 and 0 by the master batter isn't exactly the best build-up for the business end.
The game in Miami would have been the perfect platform for Kohli to get back into rhythm, but that's on hold for now. He will have to hit the nets in
Barbados
from June 17 and sort out the slight problems that have been affecting his batting till now.
Ravindra Jadeja
is another crucial, big-match player who hasn't got going so far in the World Cup. The CSK allrounder is an automatic starter in every game and Rohit will stick with him with the knowledge that Jadeja has the ability to win matches on his own. But he, too, needs a bit of confidence and form, having lacked both at the back-end of the IPL and the first leg of the World Cup.
India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, though, refused to read too much into it. "It's a team game and you really don't expect all of them to come into form. I think for someone like Jadeja, who's so vastly experienced, he just needs a game out there to just get his feel around. And we know that with the skills that he has and the experience, he's going to go ahead and he's going to win you games," Mhambrey said.
It's up to the weather gods to relent and allow the players and the travelling fans a bit of match-practice before the bandwagon moves to the West Indies.
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