COLOMBO: IF members in the Indian team are used to pouring over weather updates, they will have already realised the pretty grim weather warning the local met department has issued for Sunday's clash against Pakistan. "The special weather bulletin," was because of the likely formation of a low pressure area over "southeastern Bay of Bengal around February 15."
With thunderstorms fairly common, it won't be a surprise if Sunday's game has at least a stoppage or two.
However, it was hot and humid — typical Colombo weather — on Friday. Muggy. At the R Premadasa Stadium, Glenn Maxwell tried various ways to cool himself during his unsuccessful rearguard attempt to save Australia against Zimbabwe. In the evening, though, there was enough of a breeze in the air to ensure that the shirt didn't stick to the skin.
This weather will take some time to get used to for the Indian team after spending the last few days in New Delhi, where a genteel late winter sun has ensured temperatures remain in the early teens. The weather, of course, won't be the only thing they have to get used to over the next 36 hours or so.
The pitches in Sri Lanka and India for this tournament have been like chalk and cheese. In India, on smallish grounds and relatively flat decks, fours and sixes have been a big currency for the batters. In Sri Lanka, though, batters have had to grind and graft.
Across 13 matches in India so far (excluding the Friday evening game), batters have scored 138 runs per every 100 balls. In seven games in Sri Lanka, that has dropped to 125. There are various factors to explain this — bigger grounds, the lowish nature of the pitches and spinners getting more purchase than in conditions in India.
It's why the Indian batters may be better off not sticking to their dogma of ultra aggressive batting up top irrespective of the wickets lost column. All teams have found it tough to force the pace, especially against spin. In Indian conditions, the spinners have gone at over eight runs per over. In Sri Lanka, it's 7.5.
Batting, then , has generally been tougher in Sri Lanka. Here's where experience should come in handy. Rather than looking for the big release shots, it's about looking for singles and twos and playing percentage cricket rather than trying to take on the conditions.
Unknown venue for both teams
The other thing about the match-up is that both teams do not have a local knowledge with respect to the venue. Sure, it's a historic venue and has its own pride of place in Sri Lankan cricketing folklore but that doesn't help these two teams.
The last time India played a T20I at the venue, Shikhar Dhawan was captain, Bhuvneshwar Kumar batted at No. 6 and Rahul Chahar picked up three wickets and it was 2021. From that team, only Varun Chakravarthy is an automatic starter while both Sanju Samson and Kuldeep Yadav may yet play if the dominoes fall their way. The last time Pakistan played here, Shahid Afridi was captain and it was 2015. So, even though they have been here for over the last week, this will be their first T20I fixture at the venue in over 10 years.
One thing for sure is that Indian fans will outnumber Pakistan fans comfortably. Most of the direct flights from Chennai to Colombo on Friday was full as a lot of them scrambled for last minute tickets. One family of four from Bengaluru drove down to Chennai on Thursday night before taking a flight on Friday morning 'as I was saving close to `50,000 this way'. Several fans were sporting their India blue when they were waiting for the immigration officials in Colombo to stamp their passports.
Saying that, there were still some tickets to be had on the secondary market. If history is anything to go by, those tickets would be gobbled up by 7.00 PM on Sunday.