India sprang a surprise or two in their warm-up match against Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, but despite the tinkering, they were emphatic winners in their only tune-up before they start their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5. Rishabh Pant smashed a thrilling 32-ball 53 after being promoted to No. 3, and Arshdeep Singh was superb with the new ball as India romped to a facile 62-run victory.
With Virat Kohli having arrived in the USA only on Friday, he wasn’t considered for selection, but the big shock was Yashasvi Jaiswal being ignored. Both he and Shubman Gill were considered locks for the XI less than a year ago. Now, Gill isn’t even in the 15-man squad, and Jaiswal is unlikely to start against Ireland.
With no Kohli, Sanju Samson was sent to open with Rohit Sharma. That opening gambit failed miserably with Samson trapped in front by Shoriful Islam for a six-ball 1. Rohit too struggled for fluency on a pitch where the ball didn’t quite come on to the bat. There was one typical flicked six, but the miscued shot to which he holed out at long-on was more in keeping with his overall display.
Pant smacked four sixes and four fours before retiring, and some of the pick-up shots fine on the leg side were simply breathtaking. Suryakumar Yadav produced a typically brisk cameo (31 off 18 balls) and Hardik Pandya provided the finishing touches with a 23-ball 40 that included four sixes. Shivam Dube couldn’t make the most of his chance, but a total of 182 seemed well over par for the surface.
Arshdeep got lovely shape from the first ball he bowled, and Soumya Sarkar duly nicked the fourth ball to Pant behind the stumps. Litton Das chopped on in Arshdeep’s next over, and when Najmul Hossain Shanto, the skipper, popped a tame catch to Pandya at mid-on off Mohammed Siraj, the game was as good as over.
Pandya took a wicket too, Tanzid Hasan, with a ball that was pounded hard into the pitch, and India then eased off as Rohit gave as many as eight players a bowl. Dube bowled three tidy overs for 13, picking up two wickets in the final over, but it was hard to read too much into the figures as only Mahmudullah, fairly aggressively, and Shakib Al Hasan, sedately, got some time in the middle in a damp-squib Bangladesh performance.
Shoriful, their most impressive bowler, went off with a cut on his hand, and Bangladesh looked well short of firepower with both ball and bat. On this evidence, Netherlands and Nepal will fancy their chances of an upset.
As for India, even without Kohli, this was pretty much the perfect tune-up. Pant, who some thought might never play again even a year ago, isn’t just back – he could well be the X-factor that India’s T20 team has been crying out for.