December 2, 2023

Over the past 4 weeks, the cricket caravan has taken India on fairly a journey: Bengaluru-Colombo-Pallekele-Colombo-Mohali-Indore-Rajkot. The most recent pit cease is Guwahati in India’s northeast, for the primary lap of their World Cup marketing campaign, to play England of their first warm-up on Saturday.

India arrived from Rajkot, through a constitution flight, late on Thursday and had an non-compulsory coaching session on Friday afternoon, attended by 4 gamers – Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, R Ashwin and Shardul Thakur.
England weren’t as fortunate and spent almost 38 hours on the highway, travelling from London to Guwahati with lengthy layovers in Dubai and Mumbai. Whereas the “chaos” – as put by Jonny Bairstow in an Instagram story – might die down, the journey is unlikely to, they are going to crisscross India in the course of the match and play in eight cities.

England can draw some consolation from the truth that they are going to keep put in Guwahati for each their warm-up video games, in contrast to India, who will journey down south to Thiruvananthapuram for his or her second warm-up on October 2 towards Netherlands.

England may also draw consolation from the truth that they’ve had the wooden over India of their final two conferences at ICC tournaments. On the T20 World Cup semi-final final yr, they handed India a ten-wicket thrashing with Alex Hales and Jos Buttler making merry.
Previous to that, England have been the one facet to beat India within the league stage of the 2019 ODI World Cup, after which India jettisoned their two-wristspinner technique. Because it seems, solely considered one of them, Kuldeep Yadav, has made it to this World Cup, however he has performed so after two years within the wilderness, after going again to the drafting board, engaged on his run-up and rhythm, and rediscovering his verve to change into considered one of India’s trump playing cards.
The opposite important bit is Ashwin’s late entry into the squad on the again of an harm to Axar Patel. Ashwin, a key cog in India’s earlier ICC triumphs on the 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy, has made it regardless of having solely performed 4 ODIs – together with two final week towards Australia, the place he registered mixed figures of 4 for 88 throughout 17 overs – over the past six years.

Having compelled his means into the squad, Ashwin will fancy his possibilities of making the primary XI, given the crew’s inclination to area somebody who can bat at No. 8. This implies Ashwin will tussle with Thakur for that spot, relying on the sort of surfaces and match-ups India are prone to encounter.

England are coming off a collection towards New Zealand the place they overturned a 1-0 deficit to clinch the trophy 3-1, with Ben Stokes making an unreal 182 within the third sport. That Stokes is right here having un-retired from the format follows prolonged discussions with the backroom employees who have been eager that he performed in a bid to assist England defend their title.
Harry Brook, who had his justifiable share of troubles in India earlier this yr on the IPL, may have an opportunity to indicate why Luke Wright and Co have been proper in choosing him, albeit belatedly, at Jason Roy’s expense.
Brook confirmed glimpses of his domineering greatest when he made a barnstorming IPL hundred for Sunrisers Hyderabad early within the IPL season however tapered off after his frailties towards spin got here to the fore. He ultimately misplaced his place within the XI, however for somebody so younger, the stint was an eye-opener in serving to him adapt to the vagaries of subcontinent pitches.

As is the norm in warm-ups, each groups can area all 15 gamers from the squad. Gamers getting back from accidents or trying to find type will likely be in further focus. India have ticked most packing containers, having performed extensively in these situations. England will need to tick off their very own precedence objects.

In contrast to India, who’re skinny on batting after No. 7, England don’t have any such issues with a line-up able to batting till No. 10. All mentioned, how shortly they adapt to spin-friendly situations will likely be among the many issues to be careful for as they intention to emulate West Indies and Australia in defending their World Cup crown.

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