After a convincing win over Bangladesh in their opening fixture, there was a sense of purpose and direction in how India went about their preparations on the eve of their big-ticket match against Pakistan on Sunday. Given an off-day on Friday, some of them used the time to watch movies, while a few of them went for dinners. But at the ICC Academy ground on Saturday, they turned up an hour early for the training session that was officially scheduled to start at 1 pm.
Matches against Pakistan often bring some additional drama. But not this time. If anything, this team appeared oblivious to it, instead focusing on the job at hand. There was no talk of this being a special game or the desperate need to do well to win over the fans. Instead, they are looking inward. India may have brushed aside Bangladesh, but there are a few screws waiting to be tightened before this becomes the well-oiled machine one saw at the 2023 50-over World Cup.
With the first match giving clear indication about the conditions in Dubai over the next fortnight, India definitely have work to do in terms of their game against the spinners and batting in the middle overs on slow decks. Their splendid run at the World Cup was, after all, undone on a similarly slow surface in Ahmedabad, which India could possibly face again as the tournament progresses. Though they played on a fresh pitch on Thursday, the square already appears a tired one. With Dubai moving on from winter to spring, the rising temperatures could bring spinners more into play.
Ready to go again on Super Sunday 🙌#TeamIndia | #ChampionsTrophy | #PAKvIND pic.twitter.com/wzgEvycPWG
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 22, 2025
Before coming into the ICC Champions Trophy, India had played only 9 ODIs since the World Cup and Shubman Gill said they are still adjusting to the format.
“The format of 50-over cricket is such that we feel that we have less time and have to take on the game. But when a batsman gets out, he realises that he actually had a lot of time. We don’t get to play as many matches in this format as we play T20s and Test matches. So, I think it’s very important that whatever decision you are taking, you take it with a very balanced mind. And you should definitely check the scoreboard once if you are trying to take an extra risk. But generally, as a batsman, it is our instinct to follow a tempo and keep playing according to it,” Gull said.
Individual plans
As a result India, instead of reacting, are already being proactive. Leading the way was Virat Kohli, whose recent struggles against spinners are well documented. He has been dismissed by tweakers in the last 6 ODIs – five to leggies and once to a left-arm spinner. Even against Bangladesh before he fell to Rishad Hossain, he struggled for flow and on Saturday, was the first to arrive for the net session, a good two hours before the scheduled start.
He walked in with batting coach Sitanshu Kotak and throwdown specialists Raghu and Seneviratne. After taking a few throwdowns, he faced three local net bowlers – an off-spinner, a leg-spinner and a left-arm spinner – for the next couple of hours. With batting in the middle overs likely to be a grind, he didn’t focus as much on freeing his arms, instead was more intent on getting to the pitch of the ball. Once his teammates joined him at the academy, Kohli would face the quicks before taking a breather.
But very soon, with India’s lower order having a net session, he would once again get down to taking throwdowns, trying to sharpen his drives. He would start off by having a fielder stationed at mid-off before making him move towards the point region and then behind square in an attempt to find the gap. Once that session ended, Kohli would get to the nets again.
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Flexing muscles
If Kohli’s homework was all about facing the tweakers, the middle order comprising Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja went about their work in different ways. Last year in Sri Lanka, in similar conditions, they ended up losing all three matches in the middle overs, as the application of the batsmen repeatedly came under the scanner. On such pitches, the middle order, instead of combining caution with aggression, just tried to hit their way out of trouble, with not much success.
So Shreyas, Axar and Rahul alternated between playing risk-free shots and big hits through the line. However, when the pacers came on, there was urgency with regards to the intent they want to display in the game. Time and again, Rahul and Pandya would clear the front leg and target the mid-wicket boundary off short-of-good- length balls, which Haris Rauf usually employs in the middle overs.
If one goes by their preparation, where they oozed calmness and confidence, India appear ready for Pakistan’s challenge.
