Shamik Chakrabarty in Dubai
It is raining in the desert. The skies are grey. A cool breeze is blowing. Welcome to Dubai that has borrowed a slice of the English weather.
Rain could be a good omen for India. They have won the Champions Trophy twice and on both occasions, rain played a significant part. In 2002, under Sourav Ganguly, the trophy was shared with Sri Lanka after the final was washed out on both scheduled days. In 2013, under MS Dhoni, India pulled off a heist in a rain-affected final. England were dumbstruck.
India’s tournament opener against Bangladesh is on Thursday and if the weather stays like this, they might be tempted to play a specialist third seamer. That might disturb the team balance, but horses-for-courses is not new in cricket. India’s first two practice sessions here gave a sketchy idea about the team composition for the opener. On Tuesday, the players had a day off. The nets session on the match eve is expected to provide more details.
The big question is how will the pitches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium play? Curator Matthew Sandery will try to prepare good surfaces, but between the culmination of this year’s ILT20 and the commencement of the Champions Trophy, he is only getting 11 days. So, a radical overhaul is not possible.
The general feeling here is that the pitches might play slow and low. If that is the case, then India’s decision to pick a spin-heavy attack will be vindicated. Ibrar Ahmad, a Pakistani fast bowler who played for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20 this term, begged to differ. “Fast bowlers got some purchase from the pitches in the tournament. There wasn’t much for the spinners,” he told RevSportz, pointing out that Pakistan have loaded their squad with pacers for the Champions Trophy, picking only one specialist spinner in Abrar Ahmed.
There, though, is a difference. Pakistan don’t have any wicket-taking spinner to speak of unless they are playing Tests on snake-pits at home. White-ball cricket is not played on such decks and fast bowling has been their strength in the shorter formats. Both Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah can be match-winners on their day. Haris Rauf offers serious pace and can be a handful if the radar is working. From that perspective, Pakistan sticking to their strengths has been a logical decision.
India, too, have backed their strengths by banking on the spinners, especially in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence. They have a few world-class operators in this department, and a potential X-factor in Varun Chakravarthy. Will the Dubai pitches come to their aid? A centre square under wraps due to rain on Tuesday revealed nothing. The match-eve might offer a clue.