New York, May 31: Marvelling at the newly-constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium here, India skipper Rohit Sharma underlined the need for his team to get acclimatised to the pitch and conditions quickly ahead of their T20 World Cup opener against Ireland on June 5.
However, Rohit and company will get a chance to check the nature of the pitch and overall conditions when they face Bangladesh in a warm-up match here on Saturday. It’s also India’s lone training game ahead of the ICC marquee event.
The warm-up match is important from India’s perspective because their matches will start at 10.30 AM local time and the players need to get used to day-time matches after playing under lights in the IPL for the last two months.
“We’re looking to understand the conditions more importantly (before the tournament proper) as we haven’t been here before,” Rohit told ICC.The Mumbaikar emphasised the need for his side to get into a “rhythm” before the real action starts, and he wanted to use this side game as a springboard.“(We will) try and make the most of the conditions, get used to what it’s going to be like on June 5 when we play our first game,” he added.The challenge for the Indians will be to adapt to the drop-in turf here, something they don’t come across very often in international cricket.“It’s just about getting into that rhythm of getting the feel of the ground, pitch and stuff like that,” he said.
Rohit was part of the first batch of India cricketers to arrive here on May 26, along with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel. (PTI)
