From prayers to practice, the Indian cricket team left no stone unturned ahead of their ICC T20 World Cup semifinal against England at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. After postponing the previous day’s training session and avoiding exposure during the solar eclipse, left-handed batters Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and all-rounder Axar Patel visited Siddhivinayak temple to seek blessings.
Well, all three really need some blessings especially Sharma, whose bat remained silent in the tournament, so far. If he continues to do the same for the coming days, the Amritsar lad will surely be under a heavy ‘radar’ of critics. A win will take India to defend their title and a defeat will force the side to shift their focus to the 2027 World Cup—possibly under a new leadership and some new names.
Nevertheless, coming back to the ongoing T20 World Cup, the Wankhede Stadium will be hosting its last match of the tournament. The track—which indicates a heaven for batters—if it offers true to its nature tomorrow…the semis will be going to a high scoring game. Also, presence of a minimal dew after sunset may give jitters to the team batting second.
“I’ll probably have a better indication of what the surface is going to play like tomorrow. At the moment, because of the heat, they have given it a little bit of water, so it’s quite soft, so it’s quite hard to get a proper accurate read on it,” said Indian bowling coach, Morne Morkel. He further added, “I just felt or feel that the margins (at Wankhede) is a lot smaller. The ball travels, it’s quite a small ground. So you just need to be really fighting that over, stay in the moment and compete every ball.”
The action is yet to start, but both teams are well aware about the conditions here. England had managed to shrug off Nepal’s scare by four runs at this very ground, and in their second outing, the side went down against West Indies in a high scoring match. The opening game of the co-hosts against USA also witnessed some bumpy rides here, but both teams will enter the semis winning one game each at this very venue.
The Men in Blue will enter this match after a thumping win over West Indies and Zimbabwe, but their failure against South Africa gave the side a reality check. It was after this defeat, the side included Sanju Samson—who finally played a remarkable innings after being into the business for more than a decade. While Samson clicked in the last match, he will not be expecting to carry forward the responsibility alone. It will be now for the other batters and bowlers, who have played almost all the matches, to end England’s unbeaten run they carried in the Super-8 stage.
While England’s Sam Curran revealed to have a plan against the Indian batters, Morkel played down the home team’s inconsistency. “It is not about how you get to the semifinals but about winning the next two games. They are good teams, they play well. If you expect us to bowl teams around for 120 or 150…. We are in the semi’s, we have won games of cricket. We know the margins are small in India. It is not how you get to the semifinals. It is about the next two games how you are going to play,” shared Morkel.
On this track at Wankhede, Indian spinners Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy will be playing an important role— not for taking wickets, but to control English batters from hitting the ball over the fence. “I think the quality of this team has shown that on the day somebody can put their hand up and put up a performance. Hopefully in the last two games, especially tomorrow night, we can put that special performance in. Success is never guaranteed, but if we can give ourselves the best chance to go out and perform, that is what we strive for. A big occasion tomorrow night here, the semifinal, a great stadium to play a great game of cricket, so hopefully the boys can rock up tomorrow and just be calm and execute those plans,” added Morkel.
Not only Curran, but Morkel too maintained to have some plans for England. “England team is street smart. There’s a lot of quality in their side, batting quite long, deep, which makes them a very dangerous side. With the ball, they’ve got wicket taking options. I think the way they approach a T20 game, fearless, trying to take the game on, will give you opportunities and it makes them a dangerous side. I feel tomorrow is going to be a good shootout between two aggressive teams,” he added.
Morne Morkel emphasises adaptability and smart play as India prepares for semi-finals, citing unpredictable Wankhede wicket conditions
“To be honest, we’re not quite sure a day out how the wicket is going to play. I’m pretty sure you experience walking here, it’s a lot hotter all of a sudden in India, so in terms of moisture and allowing the wicket not to dry out, I think it’s going to be key to play well. Team selection will go in terms of what we see on game day. From there, we just need to be smart in our skills, reading the conditions and adapting to it. Plan A is to go in with some sort of idea, but the key is to find that skill of how to play on the wicket on a specific night”, says Morne Morkel.
India seeks blessings and sharp preparation ahead of T20 World Cup semi-final
