India are slated to face Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Saturday in their only warm-up fixture ahead of their opener in the 2024 T20 World Cup, which is on June 5 against Ireland at the same venue. Ahead of the match, India hosted their final practice session with former captain Virat Kohli still absent, but significant aspects remained Rinku Singh’s batting and Shivam Dube’s lengthy chat with captain Rohit Sharma.
Just like on Thursday, India had a three-hour-long practice session on Friday morning as well. Kohli was the only squad member missing, as the 35-year-old was en route to New York to join the Indian side. Kohli had reportedly extended his period of break after the end of his IPL 2024 campaign and, hence, was not part of the first batch of players that left for the World Cup.
India started their training session with fielding drills, focusing on flat and high catches under the watchful eyes of fielding coach T Dilip.
The focus then shifted to the batting nets, where Suryakumar Yadav spent a considerable time facing throwdowns. Rohit followed in next as he faced the likes of Khaleel Ahmed, Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan and Ravindra Jadeja, with the captain even practising the reverse sweep against the spinners. During his session, he was also seen having a lengthy chat with Dube about which areas or lengths to bowl, given that it was a drop-in pitch at the Cantiague Park in New York. According to the video released by Star Sports, Rohit can be seen animatedly explaining Dube about the lengths and the type of shots batters can attempt.
Dube has been picked as an all-rounder in the Indian team despite getting limited opportunities with the ball in IPL 2024 as the Impact Player reduced his role to a mere middle-order batter. After bowling in the home series against Afghanistan earlier in January, Dube rolled hi arms for only an over in IPL 2024 for Chennai Super Kings, where he also picked a wicket.
Unlike Thursday, when Yashasvi Jaiswal had a light training session owing to jet lag, the India opener had a proper session at the nets as he honed his cover drives and pull shots, while Hardik Pandya, once again, had a long batting stint while having regular conversations with batting coach Vikram Rathour throughout his session. Rathour was seen explaining to Hardik about his head position, stance and footwork.
Rinku Singh in fluent touch
The Kolkata Knight Riders batter may have missed the T20 World Cup squad cut with selectors opting for four spinners in the line-up, leaving Rinku in the reserves category, but the left-hander looked in fluent touch at the nets. According to journalist Vimal Kumar, Rinku looked in flair at the nets.
With Kohli most likely to miss the warm-up game against Bangladesh, given that he will be joining the squad on Friday evening, and will be recovering from jet lag on Saturday, India might send Rinku to bat during the match.
