India finally called right at the toss – their first success in four attempts this World Cup – and immediately chose to bat. Suryakumar Yadav put it plainly: “We’ll have a hit first. The surface looks truer than Colombo and we’d like the bowlers to know what a wet ball feels like before South Africa.”
That last point matters. Sunday’s Super Eights game could well be played in evening dew, so India prefer a dress rehearsal now rather than a panic later. With qualification already sewn up, they have also taken the chance to juggle personnel. Axar Patel rests, off-spinning all-rounder Washington Sundar comes in for his first outing of the event, and left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh replaces wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, whose extra pace off the pitch was useful in Colombo but perhaps less so here in New York.
Sundar, who last played a T20I back in January, sounded upbeat at training on Friday. “You don’t forget how to bowl power-play overs,” he said, “and the batting feels in good nick.” The management will be keen to see that theory under match pressure.
Netherlands, already eliminated after just one win, have shuffled the pack too. Scott Edwards prefers added batting steel, so Noah Croes replaces seamer Fred Klaassen. “If we’d won the toss we’d have batted,” Edwards admitted. “It’s a fresh track and runs on the board still count in big tournaments.”
Teams
India: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards (capt & wk), Zach Lion-Cachet, Noah Croes, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt, Roelof van der Merwe, Kyle Klein.
Key talking points
• India practise bowling second before facing South Africa.
• Sundar’s off-spin offers variation; Arshdeep returns for left-arm angle.
• Netherlands lengthen batting, accepting risk of one fewer quick.
A straightforward call, then, but not without its layers. The cricket is what matters, and both sides have specific boxes to tick. Now to see whether those theories survive three hours in the middle.
