During the Indian team’s recent net sessions at Cantiague Park, Long Island, Rishab Pant took a proactive approach by engaging with local spinners, inquiring about their PowerPlay field. He then set the field accordingly and went after them methodically and aggressively. This calculated approach was evident during India’s warm-up game against Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Long Island, New York, on Saturday morning.
Pant exhibited his boundary-hitting skills by attacking Bangladesh spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah, smashing them for four sixes before the team management called him back to the dressing room. He was retired out after scoring 53 runs (31 balls), which included four fours and four sixes.
Pant’s performance is a strong takeaway from India’s lone warm-up game ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup here in the US and the Caribbean. His knock may have conclusively settled the debate over the keeper-batsman role during the World Cup. Pant has sealed his place in the XI ahead of Sanju Samson, who missed yet another opportunity to prove himself at the international level, even though this was not an official Twenty20 International match per se.
Samson is likely to warm the bench of the dugout unless there are fitness issues for Pant going forward. As the World Cup games approach, it is now almost certain that there will be a direct swap in the XI between Virat Kohli and Samson. It was clear that India aimed to field their first-choice XI, with the lone exception of Kohli, and they appear to have achieved this objective. The 60-run win, while noteworthy, may just be incidental.
Another point of note is that the Indian team management has aimed to maintain a left-right combination throughout the innings, which they have achieved with careful planning. Following the likely all-right opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, left-handed Rishab Pant comes in at No. 3, followed by right-handed Suryakumar Yadav, left-handed Shivam Dube, right-handed Hardik Pandya, and left-handed Ravindra Jadeja. This lineup makes strategic sense as it complicates field setting for the opposition. However, the only potential soft spot in the lineup could be the role of a finisher if the team loses Pandya. Neither Jadeja nor Axar Patel manage to inspire much confidence on this score.
Rinku Singh would have perfectly fitted that role but he did not do himself any favours by having a poor IPL. They fell back on Dube, who actually struggled on a drop-in pitch that was quite up and down. The Mumbai and CSK batter will have to step up under pressure. India will be hoping he will not have a World Cup like Deepak Hooda did the last time around. Understandably, at the international level, no one makes a strategy in one practice game and it is obvious that the team management has already decided what it would do.
In the build-up to the championship, there had been significant chatter over the drop-in pitches, but they haven’t raised much concern. Although the bowlers are likely to find them more favourable than the batters, the pitches passed the test on Saturday. Additionally, the ground is huge with long dimensions on either side of the square leg boundary. One side of the square stretches to 77 meters and the other to 65 meters, depending on the pitch picked for a given match. The sight screens positioned nearly 65 meters away imply a higher likelihood for the boundary-line catches. Furthermore, with all matches scheduled for a 10:30 am start, the possibility of early morning moisture cannot be discounted. Despite conditions favouring the bowlers, the Indian team posted a commendable total of 182 for five. Bowlers, especially Arshdeep Singh, would have relished the conditions. A significant positive for skipper Rohit is the extraction of three overs from Shivam Dube, marking it a considerable bonus for the side.
Rohit Sharma said he is quite happy with the way the match panned out. “{I’m) quite happy with how things went, and got what we wanted with the game. It was important (for us) to get used to conditions. New venue, new ground and drop-in pitch,” the skipper said and refused to declare that Pant will bat at No 3. “(We) just wanted to give him an opportunity. We haven’t nailed the batting line-up yet, we wanted most guys to get a hit in the middle.”
On Arshdeep, the captain said, “He has shown us he has the skills upfront and also the back end, he has a very good skill set. We’ve got 15 good players here, we just need to nail down the conditions and pick the best players,” the skipper signed off after the game.
