India have creases in their T20 side which need to be ironed out and it was proved once again on Thursday when they went down to Western Australia XI in a practice match on a fast WACA pitch in Perth by 36 runs.
This was India’s second practice game and though they had won the first one by a slender margin of 13 runs, the team looks shaky ahead of the T20 World Cup, where India play their first match against Pakistan on October 23.
Though a practice encounter, India would surely be taking Thursday’s setback seriously as their batters looked uncomfortable on a fast and bouncy pitch. Chasing a 169-run target, India laboured to 132/8 in 20 overs, with only KL Rahul, who was captaining the side on the day, managing a decent score.
But even though Rahul made 74, his innings never had the momentum required in the chase.
That Hardik Pandya’s 17 was the next-best score in the Indian innings indicates the visiting team’s struggle. However, it must be mentioned that the trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav did not bat during the Indian innings. That’s no excuse though as the others had enough weightage in their names to do the job of chasing a 170-odd target.
Rishabh Pant (9) opened the innings with Rahul but found the home team pacers Jason Behrendorff and Matthew Kelly difficult to deal with. After Pant’s dismissal off Behrendorff, Deepak Hooda (6) struggled to negotiate the pace of Lance Morris and was out soon.
Pandya offered some resistance but it lasted only for a brief time. Thereafter, none of the Indians, including Dinesh Karthik (10), managed to get a foothold in the middle though Rahul survived at the other end.
Rahul tried to open up in the 18th over but was out in the next over and that ended India’s hopes of a late charge. With the ball, Ravichandran Ashwin was the most successful with three wickets, while the others too did a decent job. India next travel to Brisbane for the warm-up games against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19, respectively.
Brief scores: Western Australia XI 168/8 (Nick Hobson 64, D’Arcy Short 52; Ravichandran Ashwin 3/32). India 132/8 (KL Rahul 74; Lance Morris 2/23). Western Australia won by 36 runs
