Don’t let guard down

Thursday’s match against Namibia will show whether the star-studded Indian batting line-up has the ability to change gears if the pitch has something for the bowler or not. Against USA, the famed batting line-up failed to read the pitch, instead choosing to go for big strokes that had the defending champions slumping to 77/6 inside the first 13 overs of the first innings.

Skipper Suryakumar Yadav played a captain’s knock and flayed the minnows to set up a challenging target of 162. His unbeaten innings of 84, studded with 10 boundaries and four big sixes, showed his stars that there was a different way to counter the Wankhede pitch that was stopping on the bat. The Arun Jaitley pitch showed similar attributes during the match between two Associate countries, Namibia and the Netherlands, where the Dutch slow bowlers troubled the Africans to set up a victory.

After Thursday, India would square up against their arch-rivals Pakistan team, which is playing all their matches in Colombo, where the pitch assists mainly the slow bowlers. Interestingly, the Salman Agha-led side has preferred to play four spinners – Saim Ayub, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz and Usman Tariq – and a sole seamer, Shaheen Shah Afridi. So it is likely that they could play the same set of bowlers against India on February 15.

And Indian batter Tilak Varma stated that the team was mindful of Mumbai’s scare and were ready to bat differently if need be.

“Nothing specific. But when you are in such pressure situations, we felt we could have read the conditions earlier. We have an aggressive approach, but when wickets fall, we need to handle it better. That’s what we spoke about. The coach said we have to play with the same intent and the same approach,” Varma said about the discussions within the team after the USA match.

Bumrah fit to play

Apart from the scare, Varma disclosed that Jaspreet Bumrah is fit and raring to go and is likely to feature in the playing XI on Thursday. However, there is a big doubt on the availability of opener Abhishek Sharma who was hospitalised last night due a stomach infection.

Bumrah bowled with full intent on Wednesday after having recovered from the illness that forced him out of the opener against the USA. “He is absolutely fine now. He is doing better. As I said, we have one more day, so hopefully he will be back in the team. If he continues to feel better, the team will take the call and I think he will be back tomorrow for the second game,” Varma said of Bumrah.

However Abhishek’s inclusion is highly unlikely despite the fact he has been discharged from the hospital. If Abhishek fails to recover in time for the match, Sanju Samson will open the innings with Ishan Kishan. “When we came to Delhi, he was sent to the hospital for an examination. I think he has been discharged today and he is doing well. We still have one more day before the match, so hopefully we will decide by tomorrow depending on how he feels,” Varma said.