India will play all their nine matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 round-robin stage at different venues. While the travel fatigue will be a challenge, the team will also have to brainstorm over their playing XI combinations to suit the different pitch conditions.
In Chennai, the team took the field with three spinners and as expected, the slow pitch suited their attack. Their next game is in Delhi where 754 runs were scored in 94.5 overs between South Africa and Afghanistan.
India captain Rohit Sharma admits it will be a challenge but mentally, the team is prepared for that. “That will be the biggest challenge moving forward because we will play in different conditions, might have to change combinations too and as a team we are prepared to do that,” said Rohit after India’s six-wicket win over Australia on Sunday night.
India may have overhauled the target in 41.2 overs but their chase was off to a disastrous start having lost three wickets for just 2 runs in two overs.
Rohit, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer failed to score but then KL Rahul and Virat Kohli repaired the early damage to put India on the path to a comfortable chase.
“Yes I was (nervous) to be honest. You don’t want to start like that when chasing a target. Credit to Australia, but some loose shots there as well. But that happens, you want to get off the mark and score quickly in the powerplay,” said Rohit.
“But hats off to Virat and KL – the way they stuck out there to create a match-winning partnership,” he added.
Rohit also pointed out Indian fielding as a key factor in their winning start to the world cup campaign. “Good feeling to come out on top. Magnificent, especially the fielding. The fielding was something we really put our effort on. It was a great effort. In conditions like this it can be tough sometimes. We knew there would be assistance for everyone. Seamers got reverse, spinners bowled in nice areas. All in all a great effort,” he said.
Australia captain Pat Cummins felt his team was 50 runs short of what could have been a defendable total.
“At least 50-odd. It was tough, trying to defend anything under 200. It was a really good bowling attack and their spinners made it tough work out there,” Cummins said.
“I wasn’t too upset (with just two spinners), we had 20 overs of spin but some more runs on the board would have made the difference,” he added.
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