The celebratory gestures of Pakistan cricketers Sahibzada Farhan and Haris Rauf during Sunday’s Super Four clash against India obviously didn’t go down well with many. However, the Indians have had their focus solely on cricket, instead of how theie opponents behave, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate emphasised.
“The amount of pressure that has been heaped on the players because of the
situation makes it very difficult to control your behaviour. I did see some of the things Haris did, and that’s not our concern.
“We’re really proud of how the guys have carried themselves. They’ve fought fire with their bats on the field,” Ten Doeschate said on Tuesday.
“Our boys were focused on how we wanted to behave, and we stuck really well to cricket. It would have been easy to lose our minds, but the guys stuck really well to the task,” the assistant coach added.
India, though, will be continuing to back keeper-batter Sanju Samson at No.5 despite his struggle against Pakistan in that slot on Sunday. “Sanju is still figuring out how to play that role,” Ten Doeschate said.
“The wicket also got a little bit slow in that game. But, with the way Shubman (Gill) and Abhishek (Sharma) are going at the top, while you’ve got your captain batting at No.3, and the way Tilak (Varma) has played, we are looking for a No.5.
“We believe Sanju is the best man for the job. And we’ve no doubt that he’ll figure out how to play that role.”
