HOW WILL IT PLAY? The pitch at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi ahead of Namibia’s match against the Netherlands on Tuesday. India play Namibia here on Thursday NEW DELHI: Team USA was not the only surprise in store for the Indian team in their T20 World Cup opener last Saturday. The bigger surprise was Wankhede Square, which clamped down and offered a turnaround. For a team that entered the tournament with a score of 300+, the agonizing struggle to finish at 161/9 against an ICC associate member must have hurt some egos.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!It is learned that the Indian team management has expressed their displeasure to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding the nature of the pitch in the match against USA. It’s the start of the tournament and the pressure to defend the World Cup title at home must be huge. Additionally, the pitch called into question India’s planning for the World Cup.
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Not so long ago, during the home series against South Africa in December, the team management was forced to take a step back and set relatively modest targets to avoid batting collapses. Whether on the slow pitches in the UAE during the Asia Cup in September or the live tracks in Australia in October, India’s all-out aggressive brand of batting has been challenged. Pitchers were largely the protagonists of the wins during this period. That’s when the team management decided to play bold, first by dropping vice-captain Shubman Gill and then re-adopting an attack-at-all-costs approach. It defines the T20 ethos of head coach Gautam Gambhir. The results followed in the home series against New Zealand ahead of the T20 World Cup. The only match India lost in the five-match series was in Vizag, where the ball seemed to grip the surface as India batted second.
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Going forward, India have matches in New Delhi, Colombo and Ahmedabad in the league matches. The square here at Ferozeshah Kotla has the reputation of being high scoring from 2023. The pitch has only rested in the last three weeks after non-stop cricket since the last IPL. In Colombo, meanwhile, the pitch seemed sluggish.TOI understands that the Indian think tank prefers high-scoring games. The breathtaking and record-breaking results against New Zealand last month were played on grounds that offered pitches as hard as concrete slabs and heavy dew that made the balls feel like they were submerged in water.Incidentally, dew has not yet been a major factor at this early stage of the World Cup.“The pitch in Mumbai was a bit of a surprise. India should not be wary if the pitch offers a bit of help to the bowlers. The team’s strength lies in its aggressive approach. Yes, they should also have alternative ways of scoring but they must not give up the attacking game,” said former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta, adding, “The last match against USA was a classic example of escape. they can go for a conservative approach, they have players with these skills as shown in the few scoring Asia Cup In T20s, sometimes you just need four moves to turn a match in your favour.India’s comfort zone is high-scoring games on the belts, where they can rely on a formidable bowling line-up to restrict the opposition. But it’s also true that very high totals have proven difficult to achieve in World Cups. It is up to the Indian team to take the pitch out of the equation.
