A close, detailed look at the pitch has been a regular practice at the training sessions Team India have had at the Narendra Modi Stadium going into their opening Super Eight game against South Africa on Sunday.
India have certainly done well to remain unbeaten so far in their T20 World Cup def- ence, but the batting group hasn't had it too easy against spin. The black-soil wicket isn't expected to differ much from the surface used for India's clash against the Neth- erlands last Wednesday and should be having a bit of purchase for the spinners.
India are set to bring back the more experienced Axar Patel in their XI, though it could be a toss-up between pacer Arshdeep Singh and left- arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, depending on the sur- face's flatness.
The nature of the pitch aside, the South African bowl- ing attack should pose a bigger threat to India than the ones they have faced so far in their campaign. With the Indian batters not being too comforta- ble against spin lately and los- ing early wickets to off-spin in particular, it won't be surpris- ing if skipper Aiden Markram brings himself on to bowl in- side the Powerplay.
On Saturday, too, Markram bowled his off-spinners for a while at nets early in South Africa's training session. Cap- tain Suryakumar Yadav, how- ever, believes India's retort to off-spin will be much better from Sunday onwards.
"We have won all four games (in the group phase) where off-spinners bowled. Yes, we've gone up and down a bit. Hopefully, it will be much better from tomorrow (Sunday)," Surya said.
The Motera conditions are no alien to the Proteas as they played three group stage games here. Moreover, the two sides had also squared off in a T201 here two months ago.
For India, though, what matters is the readiness to ad- just to the conditions. "The wickets so far were not too challenging, but a little tricky. But at the end of the day, we've played enough cricket to un- derstand what kind of batting we need to do post Powerplay and then take it on.
"The team has to play according to its requirements," Surya emphasised.
