By: BCCI
India are up against an opposition that boasts of names likes AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and others. Quite obviously the bowlers have their task cut out when they face off in the first T20I on the 2nd of October.
This Indian bowling attack has bowled against them in the IPL and are bound to have a few tricks up their sleeve to get their wickets. Medium pacer Mohit Sharma was asked about his ways of countering the AB de Villiers factor to which he replied, “I feel when someone like AB de Villiers is batting, we think a lot about the batsman and forget our own strengths as a bowler. We also tend to experiment a lot at that time. If you back your strengths and execute your plans well, the results will be there to see.”
Mohit also derived a lot of confidence from the fact that he had played a lot of cricket at this venue. “I have played a lot at Dharamsala since my Under-19 zonal days. The air is a little heavy here and it does bring about a difference in the bowling. But, if you focus on your own plans and follow them you will be able to succeed. The plan is clear and that is to follow your strengths.”
Elaborating further on the dew factor, Mohit said, “It does get difficult to bowl when there is dew because it gets difficult to grip the ball and the ball comes a lot easier on to the bat and the ball stops swinging. But we do practice with a lot of wet balls to get used to such conditions. We as professional cricketers cannot complain about such situations and always look to work towards such challenges.”
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel was aware of the fact that the pitch in Dharamsala doesn’t aid the spinners much, for which he looked to bank on other factors like skid and bounce instead. “It is normally said that you don’t get much of help for the spinners but there is a bit of bounce and the ball does skid on. I will try to focus on those areas and bowl on those areas where I feel I can get help. We are not thinking about the opposition at the moment and the areas they are weak in. We are looking to do our things right and I am looking to work on my strengths.”
