Highlights
- India will take on Pakistan on October 23, 2022 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
- This is Rohit Sharma's first ICC event as Indian captain
- The Indian T20 squad departed for Australia on October 6, 2022
T20 World Cup 2022: The Indian world cup squad, led by Rohit Sharma boarded their flight to Australia on October 6, 2022. The Indian team had decided to reach Australia early to acclimatize to the weather and the playing conditions. The men in blue are slated to play their first match against Pakistan on October 23, 2022, and as of now, they feel pretty confident with how things are going for them. The Indian contingency as of now is going under rigorous training that includes sessions on endurance, batting, and bowling at the nets and fielding practice.
India had a pretty dismal outing in the 2021 edition of the ICC World Cup and their loss to Pakistan in the first game derailed their campaign completely. The Indian contingency is certainly wary of the threat that Pakistan possesses, but as of now they are completely focused on their preparations. The Indian players have been going through intense training under the watchful eyes of head coach Rahul Dravid, batting coach Vikram Rathour, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach T Dilip. Rohit Sharma-led Indian team looked very dismal and mediocre with their approach against Western Australia in an unofficial warm-up game and they will want to improve on all fronts going forward.
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Spilling the beans over India's batting preparations, batting coach Vikram Rathour said:
The focus was on getting used to the conditions. We all knew that conditions in Australia are going to be different, especially the pace and bounce that is different from Indian surfaces. So the idea of coming here early and spending some time and practicing here was to get used to these conditions and get used to the pace and bounce. The boys have worked hard and I think everybody has got some volumes in.
Addressing the preparations in his respective department bowling coach Mhambrey said:
The bounce out here in Australia is different from what the last few games we played out here. So that gives a great opportunity to the bowlers to acclimatize to the conditions, to the bounce of the wicket, hitting those lengths, what are the individual lengths you want to hit.
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The visitors will play another practice game against the same opposition on October 13 before traveling to Brisbane for the two official warm-up games against England and New Zealand.
