NEWS
Follow UsIndia and Ireland played out a low-scoring encounter in New York on June 5 (Wednesday), but it was the nature of the pitch that became the primary talking point. Some odd balls stayed low, and some shot up from the surface, making it extremely uneasy for batters to open their arms and aim for the skies.
A case in point - during Ireland’s innings, Paul Stirling was dismissed by a ball that had a spongy bounce, whereas Arshdeep Singh’s ball to Andy Balbirnie stayed extremely low. Throughout the match, multiple balls could have been considered unsafe. But instead of complaining, India’s batting coach, Vikram Rathour, stated that it was the nature of the game, and they were ready to adapt to the conditions.
“As I said earlier, it is a challenging wicket as far as batting is concerned but this is what we have, so we need to find ways to deal with it. Like I said earlier, we have enough skills and experience in the batting group especially to deal with that. We have enough good batters who can manage to bat well on any kind of surface,” Rathour said in the post-match press conference in New York.
“I think that has been our strength for many, many years. I think we can adapt really well to different conditions, and I think on this surface, you really need to adapt well and take it head-on and not worry about it too much and you're right - we have everybody fit, and they're all looking good. They're all batting well, so yeah, it's a good space to be as a batting coach.”
The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York has been prepared as a temporary venue for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup using modular architecture. The city being the largest metropolitan Indian population outside of Asia and a rapidly growing South Asian population, promoting cricket there became a priority for the International Cricket Council (ICC) - hence, the logistical challenges they had to undertake.
“I am sure it has been challenging for the curators or for ICC to create something here in the past 6-7 months or whatever time they have taken. It was never going to be easy.
“As I said earlier, they are a very experienced batting group. They have been playing cricket together for a long time - T20 cricket. And I have always believed that our batting unit is very adaptable.
“We adapt to different conditions very well and that has been our strength for many years. I’m not too concerned. We have played good tournaments; IPL is a competitive tournament and we have played a lot of cricket. So, we are not worried about skills. Adapting to the conditions, every team will have to adapt, not just us. I think that gives us an edge.”
What would make the team management happy was the way Hardik Pandya bowled, picking three wickets for just 27. He was consistent in his lines and length - which allowed the main pacers not to steer away from their plans.
“I think the toss is crucial in conditions like these but fortunately, we won the toss today so it was a great start, but you can't again control that. So even if we lose the toss and we have to bat first, we still need to find ways to deal with the situation and the pitch.
“Hardik looked really good. Hardik has been - I mean, even in the practice game and even in the practice, He's been bowling really well. He looks fit enough to go through four overs and He's been bowling with some pace and some accuracy. So yeah, it’s great,” Rathour added.
With two points already bagged, India will next take on Pakistan on June 9, 2024 (Sunday) in New York.
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