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Ind vs Aus: Indian batsmen practice against left-arm seamers in the Chennai nets ahead of Australia ODI

Ind vs Aus: Coach Rahul Dravid says India are “quite clear about the kind of squad we want for world cup”.

For a change, as has been the norm throughout the series, India team’s eyes were not on the pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium when they arrived for their practice session on Tuesday on the eve of the third and final ODI against Australia. They went on a tour of the newly built stands that have come up, with head coach Rahul Dravid even reminiscing as to how the old concrete structure used to resemble an oven back in the 90s when he played league cricket in the city.

The dark clouds were hovering around the stadium for the last couple of days but have since disappeared, and thanks to the architecture of the stadium, a good strong breeze blew in from the Marina Beach. Sizeable gaps between each of the stands has cooled down the erstwhile cauldron, and off late, especially in the evenings it has come to the aide of the seamers. In the bigger scheme of the World Cup, all this experience matters. Just as India are figuring out their combination and what would be their ideal XI, they are also using these bilateral series to get a hang of the venues and get familiar with the conditions that they would be encountering during the World Cup.

Having already ticked the Wankhede Stadium and Eden Gardens earlier in the year, Chennai is their last pit stop before they break for the Indian Premier League. From the venues they played in the 2011 World Cup at home, they haven’t played an ODI at Bengaluru, Nagpur, Delhi, Mohali and Ahmedabad recently. With the World Cup being played in October-November, a period where dew will play a bigger role to play, India are caught in a bit of unknown just like the seven other teams that will arrive for the World Cup.

Part of their decision to bat first in ODIs has not been totally down to their intent to take the batting unit out of their comfort zone; they generally prefer to chase. They are also exposing the bowling unit to bowl in more challenging conditions under dew, where with a wet ball restricting opposition won’t be as easy, especially if the match prolongs till late in the evening. At Hyderabad, set a target of 350, New Zealand stretched them till the final over.

“It’s a big tournament (World Cup), it’s a long tournament in India and we are playing in nine different cities and nine different conditions. So, you just want to have that flexibility in your squad as well, to be able to play sometimes four fast bowlers, sometimes three spinners. You just want to have that flexibility. Even in the league phase it is going to be nine different cities for India. It’s in October. Wickets won’t be as tired as they probably are during the backend or start of the summer. So you just have to get your bases covered,” Dravid said on Tuesday.

But before all of it, there is a decider to be played on Wednesday. For a venue that hasn’t hosted an ODI since 2019, the build up to the ODI has triggered a public scramble for tickets. On the eve of the match, a few hundred fans waited desperately outside the stadium gates to check if any unsold tickets were put up for sale before being content enough to take a selfie with MS Dhoni’s huge mural in the background. At the Wallajah Road end, a handful of youth were using the tiny gap between the facades to get a glimpse of who is batting in the ‘B’ ground nets, where there were some interesting takeaways.

Having been troubled by Mitchell Starc in the last two matches, the batting unit spent a considerable time facing left-arm pacers. Even though skipper Rohit SharmaVirat Kohli and KL Rahul didn’t turn up for the optional net session, the rest of the batting unit were put to test against left-arm pacers. Apart from Jaydev Unadkat, the lone left-arm seamer in the squad and throw-down specialist Nuwan Seneviratne, video analyst Hari Prasad Mohan was also seen rolling his left arm over to Ravindra Jadeja.

And there was the tall Sathyam Patel, a left-arm medium pacer, who plies his trade in Chennai local division, bowling a long spell, and cleaning up Ishan Kishan four times under 20 minutes. The first one was a full-length delivery that he inside-edged onto the stumps. Ishan then missed another full delivery going for a big shot. Patel then bowled a inch-perfect yorker that took out the middle and off stumps before dismissing the opener with another full delivery that went between the pad and the bat.

Their struggles against left-arm pacers aside, Wednesday provides an opportunity for India to round-off a home season which they have dominated across formats. Out of the eight ODIs they have played so far, they have won seven, and with each outing – despite losing two players to injury – are close to finalising the 15 for the World Cup.

“To a large extent, I think we have got a lot more clarity at the end of these nine games, irrespective of whatever happens tomorrow. I think we will just keep building on that clarity. We are quite clear about the kind of squad we want. For us now it’s really just about the different playing XI combinations and just ensuring that we play different combinations at times just to ensure that we are able to do that in the World Cup and we are not surprised by anything in the World Cup,” Dravid said.

Source:indianexpress.com

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