The radiant sunshine had just started to fade away as Snehasis Mukherjee, my colleague, and I, waited for the Indian team to arrive for their practice session. But as the clock ticked closer to 6 PM, it was another team that caught our eye, the six-time T20 World Cup champions, Australia. As expected, there was an air of confidence about them.
More importantly, when Australia practised, it didn’t seem like an intense training session. It felt more as if they were enjoying the various tasks to be performed, including a game of Rugby. At that moment, Snehasis and I quipped: The body language of this side itself is so different.
India’s next opponent is the same Australian side. After an ignominious defeat in their opening game, India, too, have bounced back in style, winning their previous two fixtures. In their last encounter versus Sri Lanka, India excelled in all 3 departments. Having said that, Australia and Sri Lanka are like chalk and cheese. The former has the aura of an invincible team.
It isn’t all doom and gloom for India though. In Sharjah, they can still chisel out a way and pip Australia. So, what could be the key aspects to look at while taking on a champion team? For starters, it is controlled aggression. It could be something as simple as the fielders attacking the ball every single time. It would give an indicator to the opponent that ‘we are in for a contest’.
In the prevailing conditions in Sharjah, the Indian spinners will definitely have a say. The wickets in Sharjah haven’t just been on the slower side, but they have also tended to say low. A spinner like Asha Sobhana could prove to be useful. She bowls at the right pace for the wickets that we have witnessed in Dubai and Sharjah. Her ability to flight the ball and extract a bit of grip from such tracks could make a telling difference. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sobhana has taken five wickets at an average of just 13, and her economy rate stands at an impressive 5.41.
Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil also have a role to play. Arundhati Reddy, the medium pacer, has benefited from consistently attacking the stumps in Dubai. Something similar would be expected from her in Sharjah. Remember, Megan Schutt followed the strategy of zooming almost everything on the stumps, hitting the indentations and employing cutters versus New Zealand in Sharjah. Her reward was 3 wickets for just 3 runs from 3.2 overs.
It is true that the onus would also be on the batters. In tricky conditions in Sharjah, if India lose the toss and have to bat second, then the task could get tougher. In that context, the Powerplay overs would be extremely crucial. It is imperative that the Indian batters take advantage of facing the new ball. Once the ball becomes scuffed, it could be difficult to land the big shots. One subplot to watch out for would be Smriti Mandhana facing Ashleigh Gardner. The off-spinning all-rounder has accounted for Mandhana’s wicket several times in limited-overs matches.
Beyond Mandhana, another batter to watch out for in these conditions might be Jemimah Rodrigues. The experienced batter has the nous and skill to unsettle the spinners with sweeps and clever strike rotation.
The climes in Sharjah are such that it evens up the contest a little more. India have also got the better of Australia in T20 World Cups – Around four years ago, the leg-spinner Poonam Yadav befuddled Australia in Sydney and the Asian nation emerged victorious by 17 runs. Maybe it is the turn of Sobhana to do something similar in the desert of the UAE.