Team India Ready To Roar

 

 

 

Preparation Done Now It’s Time for Big Stage

T20 World Cup-2022

 

Team India Mission Melbourne:-

Indian team travelled to Australia on 6^th October for T-20 World Cup 2022, 10 days to prior to start of the mega event. The goal was to assess the pace and bounce in those challenging pitches. Also to practicing in those big grounds like MCG, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth etc. Also some of the players also 1^st timer to Australia in terms of playing white ball cricket. So to provide them ample amount of time for preparation it was planned accordingly. When our main team was traveling to Australia, our 2^nd string team played a one-day series against fully stable South Africa team.

 

Road to Melbourne:-

India’s first game is to be played on 23^rd October against arc-rival Pakistan at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). But before that Indian team set their base at Perth- one of the pacey and bouncy track in the world. Every team has given some practice games before the main games to begin. These were official warm-up games scheduled by ICC. But BCCI had planned two unofficial practice matches against Western Australia on 10^th & 13^th October. While in main warm-up games India had to play against Australia and New Zealand on 17^th & 19^th October respectively, at Brisbane (Gabba). This was the venue where India scripted history in 2020-2021 Test Series against mighty Australia.

Starting from Perth, Indian team practiced hard in the net sessions and made solid preparation ahead of the WC. During the stay in Perth, team played two practice games against Western Australia, in which India won the 1^st game by 13 runs and lost the 2^nd one by 36 runs. After that there was a press conference of all 16 team’s captains in MCG. Indian Captain Rohit Sharma attended that. Post that Indian team travelled to Brisbane for official warm-up games. On 17^th October India defeated Australia in a closely contested game by just 6 runs while on 19^th October the game against New Zealand was washed out due to rain.

 

Positives from the Practice Games:-

India had travelled with 14 players in the squad along with the coaches and other support staffs, during 1^st phase. Mohammed Shami who was recovered from Covid selected as the replacement for Jasprit Bumrah and travelled with other travelling reserves in 2^nd phase. But he missed 1^st two practice games. While he was available for last two games. Looking at the positives, the main positive was India played 3 games out of 4 (4^th one against New Zealand called off) and won 2 out of them while defending a total. We lost one match while chasing. However team tried different combinations in 3 games and still manage to get some exciting results from it. In batting front KL Rahul showed his class at the top and Suryakumar Yadav continued his top form here also. Team’s best batter Virat kohli only get one game against Australia in which he looked good but stayed for a short time in the crease. Same case was with the team’s main all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who played two impactful but small knocks against Western Australia.

In the bowling front our bowlers did good as they won us 2 out of 3 games while defending a total, which becoming a problem in last couple of months for us. All the bowlers bowled quite decently and picked wickets which gave us the much needed confidence. But the game against Australia was came out as the most significant moment in our preparation where our bowlers defended just 16 runs in last 2 overs against top batting attack. The 19^th over which looked to be a mystery or night mare for us since this Asia Cup, Harshal provided a magic over of just 5 runs with the wicket of Tim David in that game and also coming back almost after one year, Shami bowled his 1^st over in International T20Is in the final over of that match. Captain Rohit gave him a challenge to defend just 11 runs in that match and he just nailed his Yorkers and picked 3 wickets and gave only 4 runs. This was an outstanding comeback to the Indian side for Shami in the 20-20 Internationals. Although he just bowled 1 over before big games in the tournament, but those 6 balls told the reason behind his selection in the team and his ability with the ball.

 

Negatives from the Practice Games:-

While other than KL, Surya, Virat and Hardik, Captain Rohit Sharma, Wicket Keepers- Rishabh Pant & Dinesh Karthik and Deepak Hooda looked struggling while batting. India lost the 2^nd practice match against Western Australia while chasing score of 168 by 36 runs, which looked not very positive. Especially in the absence of two of the key batters of the team Virat and Rohit. In that particular match KL Rahul score 74 of 55 deliveries while all others manage to score just 48 of 65 deliveries. This might be just a warm-up game but performance like this is never going to help in preparation. And in case when our top batters will fail in one game, in that situation we might not be confident enough towards our middle order batters.

 

Main Stage set, Ready to Begin!

Sometimes practice game results not justify the team’s real ability and strengths, so there is no need to take it so positively or negatively. What is important, that is to take lessons from it and correcting it at required place. Indian team had left for Melbourne from which the journey will begin for us. All the preparation will be done before the 23^rd and team will come out with their A game in the clash against Pakistan, it is the wish of every Indian Cricket team fan. The whole campaign will depend on how we start against a top side like Pakistan which is the biggest game of this tournament from both the country’s point of view. Billions of Cricket lovers from both sides are eagerly waiting for the Sunday to watch an absolutely cracker of a game. This will set the prefect stage for upcoming games for both the teams. A win here will make the journey easier for both the teams as it the game of highest pressure and highest quality.

But our focus is not just on this game but to lift the trophy on 13^th November at the same venue. Not taking too much pressure of the 1^st game will certainly help our team to perform well and bring back the trophy home after 15 years in this format. And also 9 years wait will be also ended of winning an ICC trophy.