The game against Namibia on Thursday was more of a warm-up for India going into Sunday’s clash against Pakistan. And they didn’t have to break much sweat against a side with little experience of playing under lights, winning the contest at the Arun Jaitley Stadium by 93 runs.
This is India’s highest margin of victory in terms of runs in the T20 World Cup.
The idea for Team India was to iron out the flaws, especially in their batting, before the marquee clash coming up in arguably challenging conditions at the Premadasa. Put into bat on a pitch where the ball kept low and gripped a little, India posted 209/9 — 48 more than their total against the US (161/9) last week — with Ishan Kishan’s 24-ball 61 at the top and Hardik Pandya’s 52 off 28 balls being the highlights of their innings.
But, the innings of Ishan and Hardik notwithstanding, will the team management be pleased with how the rest of the batting group fared? Even when 225 looked pretty much on the cards during Hardik and Shivam Dube’s fifth-wicket stand of 81, India lost as many as five wickets off the last 11 balls of their innings, adding only four to the total.
Following Hardik’s dismissal off Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus (4/20) — pick of the opposition bowlers — India lost three wickets for just a run. The late collapse didn’t go on to hurt, as Namibia fell apart as their run chase progressed.
Jasprit Bumrah, who returned in place of Mohammed Siraj, bowled after the Powerplay, making things a tad easier for Namibia, but they still had no answers to tweakers Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel, labouring their way to 116 in 18.2 overs.
Precisely, it’s India’s batting which is looking scratchy if the surface isn’t tailor-made for strokeplay. The role of the top four, particularly that of Ishan, assumes bigger importance for Sunday’s high-profile game in Colombo. More so, if he again has Sanju Samson, who played in place of Abhishek Sharma, as his opening partner.
Hand-eye coordination and bat speed are doing wonders for keeper-batter Ishan, while Hardik looks sharper with his strokeplay. India do need the pair to maintain form.
A “changed person” that he is now, focusing primarily on his batting and wicketkeeping and “just two-three hours for jokes”, Ishan is in good spirits.
“Getting runs is always good for batters. From all these matches we played, there was a lot of learning and confidence which we’ve gained. But the Pakistan match would obviously be a special one for everyone.
“So, once we get there, we’ll look at the wicket and have an idea of what will be a good total, and we’ll just play accordingly,” Ishan said later.
