India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has opined on the need to keep the bowlers fresh with a day off between their last group match and the semi-final as well. India – who are assured of a semi-final spot – will not compromise on anything, he said, as they also want to top the group as well. Notably, New Zealand have also already qualified for the semi-finals and Sunday’s match will decide the Group A topper as well.
“We’ve had two pretty tough training sessions, so that’s been the preparation,” ten Doeschate said. “In terms of the bench strength, I think the priority is making sure that we have our best guys available and fully fit for the second game [the semi-final on March 4]. “But we also don’t want to rest them for another two days [India have had a week off]. So to get that balance right, we might just try to share the bowling out a little bit. But we obviously want to win against New Zealand as well. It’s important that we keep that momentum going and obviously to top the group as well. So the balance of those two things I just mentioned [is] to be thought about.”
Ryan ten Doeschate also said that he was happy with the rest of his players as well.
“They’ve had a lot of rest now. But it’s how you back the two games up. So if all the seamers are going to bowl 10 overs, and then say we bowl second in the first game, we’re bowling 36 hours later, we’re bowling first, that’s quite a workload. So that’s what I was alluding to. One of the options is to make sure the guys don’t bowl their full quota of overs, if that opportunity allows itself. But we’re ready to manage that in the field and try and keep the guys as fresh as possible for the first and the final,” he further added.
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When he was asked about captain Rohit Sharma’s fitness after an injury scare in the game against Pakistan, he said, “He’s all right. It’s an injury he’s had before, so he knows how to manage it really well.”
“They [New Zealand] have [many] spinners as well, so it could be a contest of spin,” he said. “Coming into the competition, we weren’t expecting such an over-reliance on spin. But the guys have bowled nicely and the pitch has helped a little bit, so I’m sure it’s going to be the same for the next game here,” he again shared.
Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant has been on the sidelines in the tournament so far, with KL Rahul getting a nod before him. However, he also shared his views on whether having two quality keepers has been a good dilemma, he said,
“It’s been very hard on Rishabh not playing. But that’s the nature of sport at this level. KL has been good. He didn’t get many chances… [But] we’ve got to keep Rishabh up and running. We never know when we’re going to need him. But certainly to have two wicketkeepers of that calibre is a nice thing to have,” he stated.
“I won’t say difficult. I think we’ve become used to a standard where you score 320 without thinking too much about it. [Here] getting to 320 has been difficult. The pitch has played slightly differently, in my opinion, in those two games [against Bangladesh and Pakistan]. But they are probably like 280-290 pitches if you bat really well. So in the bigger picture, yeah, it’s not like playing in Pakistan, where you expect to get 320-330. But you’ve got to adapt yourself and get a score that’s good on these wickets. And we think it’s right about 280-290, judging from the first two pitches,” Ryan ten Doeschate concluded.
