Georgetown (Guyana), Jun 26 (PTI) The Indian batters are expecting the Guyana pitch to turn considering the way they went about their net session ahead of the T20 World Cup semi-final against England here on Thursday.
The previous five games at the Providence Stadium have offered plenty of assistance to the spinners and despite a long gap between the last match here on June 8 and the second semi-final, the Indian team management is anticipating no change in pitch behaviour.
After a rest day, all 15 squad members turned up for practice at the venue on Wednesday.
Virat Kohli, who has been short on runs in this competition, was, as usual, the first to hit the nets and had the company of Rishabh Pant. The Indian superstar honed his pick-up shots and hits down the ground while taking throwdowns before facing Kuldeep Yadav and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the adjacent nets.
There were two net bowlers too, a leggie and a left-armer, to help India prepare for the threat posed by Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and part-timer Liam Livingstone. Kohli batted for around 45 minutes and was seen charging down the ground against Kuldeep on a number of occasions.
Jaiswal, who hardly bowls when he is in the playing XI, rolled his arm over for a major part of the training session. Yuzvendra Chahal, who is unlikely to play the semi-final, also bowled to the specialist batters in the team.
Shivam Dube, who has not delivered as per expectations, was seen lining up against Chahal and a local left-arm spinner, targeting the cow corner region.
Ravindra Jadeja, who could also do with some runs on Thursday, batted alongside Dube in the nets installed in the main square, giving the batters a feel of the surface.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, fresh from a sublime 92 against Australia, did not have a hit in the middle.
He came for the pre-match press conference and in as many words, ruled out playing four spinners.
“Teams bring five seamers also – that doesn’t mean they will play five seamers. We have played three spinners no; in New York we were playing two spinners. Here we are playing three spinners.
“So, if we will feel it necessary to play four spinners then we will play. But we will see,” said the skipper in a dismissive tone.
Source: PTI News
