‘ To play India in India will be very, very hard’
SIMILAR to champions Australia at last year’s one-day World Cup, hosts India must deal with raging expectations from home fans to win the World T20 but should thrive in their own conditions, according to former Australia paceman Ryan Harris.
Harris, pictured, who retired from all cricket last year, expects the March 8April 3 tournament to provide plenty of excitement, given most teams will boast players with experience of local pitches having competed in the domestic Indian Premier League.
However, the quality of India’s batsmen would make the hosts very hard to beat and ensure opposing bowlers were in for a rough ride, said Harris, who harbours ambitions to coach Australia at international level.
“Having been there and experienced it and watched those guys, they’re unbelievable in those conditions,” said the 36-yearold, who played five IPL tournaments from 2009-13 with the Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab.
“You bowl a good ball and you walk back and think ‘ how has that gone there? Exactly where he wanted to put it’. And that’s what you’ve got to accept as a bowler in those conditions, particularly over there,” he added.
“You can’t really target any of their guys. They bat down to seven or eight, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got them all covered.
“It’s a bit like Australia in the World Cup last year. When you’re playing at home, the expectations are obviously quite high.
“They’re going to have billions of people watching it and there’s pressure and all that stuff, but you know you’re in your own conditions and there’s no better place to play at. To play India in India will be very, very hard.”
As big tournament hosts, India have hardly struggled in front of home fans and won the 2011 one-day World Cup co-hosted with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, uncapped Evin Lewis has been named to replace the injured Lendl Simmons in the West Indies squad for the World T20 in India. The experienced Simmons was ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury.
“The 24year- old lefthanded batsman will join the team ahead of the start of the global event,” the West Indies Cricket Board said in a statement.
Lewis has represented Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean T20 and the Champions League and impressed chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd, who led West Indies to two 50-over World Cup triumphs.
Sri Lanka’s World T20 title defence suffered a setback with Lasith Malinga’s slow recovery from a knee injury forcing the fast bowler to hand over captaincy to Angelo Mathews.
Malinga remains available for group stage matches but the paceman with blond-tinted hair and an unorthodox action may not be the same force which has been key to Sri Lanka’s progress to three World T20 finals over the last four editions.
The team, however, can take heart from the fact that a similarly forced change in captaincy marked their triumphant 2014 campaign when out-ofform skipper Dinesh Chandimal sat out the final few matches and Malinga stepped in to lead them to glory.
“He is stepping down only from captaincy,” Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Mohan de Silva said.
“He has offered himself for selection only after (March) 15,” de Silva added. – Reuters