Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai
Rohit Sharma, the India skipper, had a chat with Matthew Sandery, the curator, during the practice session, on the eve of his side’s opening Champions Trophy game against Bangladesh, in Dubai. The discussion seemed light-hearted. Rohit’s laughter also was the essence of India’s practice as there was a feel-good atmosphere.
One of the reasons for India deciding to have a training session at the Dubai International Stadium in the evening/night could be to assess the dew factor. However, there didn’t seem to be much dew around. One of the ways to gauge the dew would be to take a few steps outside the stadium barefoot. When yours truly did undertake that small exercise, it felt as if the dew wouldn’t necessarily play a major role during the course of the India-Bangladesh encounter. Although a caveat has to be added here: External factors cannot be predicted with a guarantee card.
During the last few days, the temperatures too have been on the lower side in Dubai. As the scientific explanation goes: “Colder air is less able to hold water vapor than warm air. This forces water vapor in the air around cooling objects to condense.”
That is in brief about the much talked about dew. The next question to tackle is India’s training workshop. Mostly, India’s bowlers took part in the net session, with a few of them having two stints. Other than that, Virat Kohli faced a few gentle throwdowns, and the players participated in the fielding drills.
Mohammed Shami, the veteran fast bowler, had only one stint and bowled within himself. Despite that, he was clearly hitting the seam, extracting some kick off the pitch. Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh generated a fair amount of pace during the second half of India’s nets and could find himself in the starting XI. One of the pointers held against the left-arm bowler is that his pace isn’t consistent. But in that one short burst, it seemed like Arshdeep was mostly touching his maximum speeds. He was also getting a few tips from Shami. On the other hand, Hardik Pandya, the seam-bowling all-rounder, and Harshit Rana had light workouts.
Most of the eyes in the press box were zoomed in on India’s five spinners. Among the lot, Ravindra Jadeja was dragging down some of his offerings. One could observe Jadeja repeating his action a few times after making the mistake of bowling drag downs. Ultimately, he found his rhythm and hit the top of off-stump, and that is when you said to yourself – The quintessential Jadeja.
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Washington Sundar, the spinning all-rounder, mostly operated around the good length area, while Kuldeep Yadav got some drift, dip and turn during the later stages of the session. The left-arm wrist spinner might just find a spot in the starting XI. Varun Chakaravarthy, India’s potential trump card, seemed content on locating the right line and length and didn’t give away the cards in relation to his bagful of variations.
In fact, Rohit had to say this about tackling Varun in the nets: “Net mein toh humko zyada variations dalta nahi hai wo. Ek his tareeke see ball dalta hai. Ho sakta hai vo humko bhi nahi dikhana chahta ki uske paas kya hai. (He doesn’t bowl a lot of variations in the nets. He only bowls one type of delivery. Perhaps he doesn’t even want us to know what he’s got)”
Let’s now analyse Bangladesh’s nets with a microscopic lens. All of Bangladesh’s seamers, barring Nahid Rana, bowled long spells. Tanzim Hasan was probably the best of the lot. The spirited seamer seemed to be extracting just enough nip and was hitting the bat hard on impact. Initially, Taskin Ahmed was grappling a touch with his rhythm. He probably was muscling through the crease a little more and completed his followthrough with a grunt. Mustafizur Rahman, the king of off-cutters, employed the variation on numerous occasions.
Among the batters, Mushfiqur Rahim was keen on facing the spinners – Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed and Co. A couple of other batters were up against side-arm throwers. One of the side-arm throwers likely was looking to replicate Mohammed Shami’s action – shifting from over to round the wicket angle.
There is one more question to be answered – The pitch conditions for the game. One could observe bare patches of grass. The school of thought from the curator could be to hold the track together. By the looks of it, the pitch might be a tad two-paced.
In the final analysis, it comes down to who executes all the training and hard work in the match. Logic says India has more than enough weapons in the arsenal to emerge victorious. Or who knows? Perhaps it is time for Bangladesh to rewrite the pages of history with a win over their famed rivals in a senior ICC tournament.
Also Read: There’s a reason why Gill has been elevated to vice-captaincy: Rohit