India to hit nets today in Barbados to prepare for Super 8 tie vs Afghans
MIAMI: It's travel time. The American duty is over for India and now we're into what matters most --the Super-8 in the West Indies.
There wasn't everything perfect about the US leg - bad pitches, poor outfield, washed out game - but India didn't find it too tough to cross the first hurdle of the month-long marathon.
Now it's
Afghanistan
, Bangladesh (most likely) and Australia in Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia respectively. And with two teams going ahead from the group --Rohit Sharma's boys should be there in Guyana for the semifinal on June 27.
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With their last league game against Canada at Fort Lauderdale getting washed out without a ball being bowled,
Team India
players got a bit of time to put their feet up and relax. But with no practice also possible since their last match in New York on June 12, batting coach Vikram Rathour sounded a little worried.
"This was of course not ideal. We would have preferred to build on the momentum and this was the game to express ourselves. But there's not much we can do about it," Rathour said.
The Indian team will hit the nets in Barbados on June 17 to prepare for their game against Afghanistan --a team that has been in fine form so far. But much like India, they, too, haven't played in Barbados and will have to adapt to conditions. The England vs Australia game was played at the
Kensington Oval
where the Aussies had plundered 201 and then leggie Adam Zampa got 2/28 to become Man of the Match.
Unlike Nassau County Ground in New York, where India played their three games, the Kensington Oval pitch should be batting-friendly and with no dew in the equation, the spinners, too, could come in handy.
It's to be seen whether India stick to the four-pacer theory or drop Mohammed Siraj, whose form has been slightly up and down, and play Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner. Rathour kept the options open when he said: "We need to be a flexible team. We need to look at the conditions that are in front of us and be ready to deal with those. We'll react to what we get on that day and we have the resources to deal with any condition," Rathour said.
Afghanistan, of course, is a team that banks heavily on spinners with
Rashid Khan
leading the line. Mohammed Nabi and Noor Ahmed are the two other spinners who should get the nod. All of them were part of the IPL and they know everything about bowling to the Indian batters.
For India, it will be crucial that
Virat Kohli
, who had an indifferent USA leg with scores of 1,4 and 0, gets into the groove. Opening the batting, it could well be on Kohli to take the attack to the Afghan bowlers, and we might see him playing the slog sweep, a weapon that he has included in his arsenal to deal with the spin.
Rathour insists that a "hungrier" Kohli, following his slight bad patch in New York, could be even more dangerous. "I have absolutely no concern about his form. He batted superbly in the IPL and a couple of dismissals here doesn't change anything. Actually, it's good that he is a little hungrier, he is really keen to do well and really switched on," Rathour said.
That should be music to the ears of all those fans who have been waiting for India to break a decade-long ICC title jinx. The signs so far aren't bad at all.
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