Bewildered by the newly-constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, India skipper Rohit Sharma underlined the importance of getting acclimatised to the pitch and conditions quickly ahead of his team’s T20 World Cup opener against Ireland on June 5.
However, Rohit & Co will get an opportunity to check the nature of the pitch and overall conditions when they face Bangladesh in a warm-up match here on Saturday. It’s also India’s lone training game ahead of the ICC marquee event.
The match will also provide an opportunity to the Bangladeshis to regroup and work on their shortcoming, especially after their forgettable outing in the recent series loss to tournament co-hosts USA.
India, on the other hand, is already considered one of the title-contenders. With a side that has a good combination of both experienced and young players, India will expectedly start as favourites against Bangladesh, but at no point can take the opposition lightly.
From India’s perspective, the timing of the warm-up match will be an important factor, as all their matches start at 10:30 am local time, and the players will look to get used to playing under the sun after playing under lights during the IPL over the past couple of months.
“We’re looking to understand the conditions more importantly (before the tournament proper) as we haven’t been here before,” Rohit said.
The 37-year-old also insisted on the importance of getting into the rhythm, and setting the initial momentum, before the real action unfolds against Ireland on June 5.
“(We will) try and make the most of the conditions, get used to what it’s going to be like on June 5 when we play our first game. It’s just about getting into that rhythm of getting the feel of the ground, pitch and stuff like that,” he said.
It will also be interesting to see whether the team management persists with the tested opening combination of Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal, or experiments by promoting Virat Kohli to partner the captain. Also the match will mark the return of stumper Rishabh Pant back in the India jersey after recovering from the near fatal car crash that left him out of action since December 2022, only to make a return to competitive action during the recently-concluded Indian Premier League.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto will be desperate to put the pieces of a winning plan together after the nightmarish 1-2 loss against the relatively-weaker US side. Shanto will also be expecting to hit peak form with the bat, and coupled with the loss, the pressure is well and truly on him to turn things around, and fast, for the team.
With their first warm-up game against the US being abandoned due to bad weather in Dallas, Texas, Bangladesh will seek to make the most of the outing against the Indians. The Bangladesh side is primarily preparing for the challenges they expect to face on the drop-in pitches given their unfamiliarity with it.
Ahead of the contest against India, Bangladesh will be relieved by the return of Taskin Ahmed, who recently started bowling with a shorter run-up after recovering from a back injury that forced him out of cricket until now.