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India will face Namibia tomorrow in the T20 World Cup. Read our in-depth preview here…
of India A gritty performance against the United States on Saturday has retrained the focus and assistant coach Ryan ten Douchet said the players now understand “we’re in the World Cup”.
Defending champions and co-hosts of the tournament, India were expected to outclass the US in their opening game in Mumbai at the weekend. But, India would have been in real trouble if Suryakumar Yadav’s unbeaten 84 was not the captaincy.
They posted 161 for 9 in their 20 overs before restricting the US to 132 for 8, completing a 29-run win.
India Tech Namibia In their Another Group A outing tomorrow And Ten Doeschate admits the USA game came as a “wake-up” call.
He told Cricinfo: “We want to play a certain style of cricket, and now it feels like a better World Cup. I think the first outing in Mumbai was a good shake-up, a good wake-up. When you get yourself to 77 for six, you realize you’re starting a World Cup defence. We definitely know we’re in the World Cup now.”
The failure of India’s batting line-up – only four men managed to reach double figures – means the pressure is mounting against the African nation in Delhi.
“The modern-day batsman’s tendency is to hit every ball and hit sixes,” Ten Doschet said. “There are times where you have to apply yourself. And I felt the Mumbai wicket needed a bit more application and perhaps a change of strategy. Especially, losing three wickets in the last over of the Powerplay and then being six down at 70 required adaptation to the situation we were in.
“And in this format, if you’re always shooting for 250, you’re going to make mistakes and we have to accept that. It’s almost an acceptable mistake, which we allow. But judging by how the wickets have played in these first five or six days of the tournament, there might be some improvement in strategy and how we go about things.”
Namibia come into the contest after losing to the Netherlands by seven wickets.
Team News for India vs Namibia
India’s Washington Sundar is fit after overcoming a side strain, as has Jasprit Bumrah due to illness. Opener Abhishek Sharma is unlikely to be in danger as he was discharged from hospital this morning due to a stomach infection.
Namibia are likely to make just one change, dropping 17-year-old paceman Max Heingo in favor of the more experienced Ben Shikongo.
Predicted line-ups for India vs Namibia
India: Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakraborty
Namibia: Lorraine Steenkamp, Jan Frylink, Jan Nicole Lofty-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (c), JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Dylan Leicher, Willem Myberg, Ruben Trumpelman, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo
How to watch India vs Namibia
India vs Namibia starts tomorrow afternoon at 1.30pm UK time. The T20 World Cup will be shown live exclusively in the UK Sky Sports. You can stream it on the Sky Go app.
For coverage elsewhere in the world, click here For details of your local rights holder.
Prediction for India vs Namibia
India were out of sorts against the United States but that is unlikely to happen again. They have too much quality to make up for another sub-standard display and it could be a very long evening for Namibia.
India expects to win and win well. The only downside is that it will raise expectations among their fan base, but that’s a familiar feeling for Yadav and company.
