By: BCCI
Team India began their practice as early as 10 in the morning and straight away went about their drills of brushing up their fielding skills. The crux of the Indian batting strolled to the nets and made full use of it, batting for close to an hour. Meanwhile, the South Africa arrived at Dharamsala after having played a warm-up fixture just a day back.
The visitors arrived at the back of a defeat against India ‘A’ but India batsman Rohit Sharma didn’t read much into that result. “These are practice games and the teams try and field their best combination. They try to use their reserve players as well in their practice matches. I don’t want to read too much into practice matches because every team is trying something or the other. We know they are one of the strongest sides and been one of the most consistent teams in all the three formats. But it will be a challenge for them to perform and do their best.”
Rohit also believed India had a slight edge in terms of preparations since the team had been in Dharamsala over the last couple of days. “We have come here way before and gotten used to the conditions. It is always important to get adjusted to the conditions when you go to a new place. It is one of the challenges. We have gotten into the groove. It will be a challenge for us to regroup in this format and put the performance and we know that the T20 World Cup is just round the corner. We have to get the best out of all the T20 games we play from now on.”
The batsman was also of the view that fielding will play a crucial role in the series. “We have practiced really hard over the last two days and we have focused a lot on the fielding and catching. It is one of the things that can change the course of the game at any given point. We are working hard towards our batting and bowling but fielding is something that we are really focused on. You might have seen the results in Sri Lanka. The way we fielded in Sri Lanka was brilliant. Hopefully in the coming years, we will be the best fielding side.”
When asked if playing in the IPL would have benefitted the South African players, Rohit said, “It is not going to make much of a difference because all these guys have played the IPL for the last five to six years and they have at some point of time played all our Indian bowlers. We, as batsmen must have faced a lot of their bowlers as well. Both the teams have advantages and disadvantages. It is all about what you do on the given day.”
Elaborating further on playing South Africa’s strong pace attack, the batsman believed, playing under testing conditions abroad had helped the team to be well prepared against the strongest of pace attacks. Rohit’s focus was not merely on countering pace though.
“The last couple of years has really helped us as a batting unit because most of the games we played was outside India. That has given us a lot of confidence no matter what kind of attack we play. The tours that we had outside have really helped us getting evolved as a batting unit. It is not just their pace attack, they have got some quality spin bowlers as well. Their spin and pace, both will be effective and our focus would be on both the aspects.”
