Team India is gearing up for their T20 World Cup opener versus Ireland, on Wednesday (June 5) in New York. The one-time winners are preparing hard for a fine start and had an intense training session ahead of their clash versus the Irish clash. Virat Kohli, who missed India’s sole warm-up match versus Bangladesh, headlined the Men in Blue’s practice session where he batted for close to 40 minutes as the national side trained for close to three hours, at the Nassau County Cricket Ground on Monday evening.
Kohli was up against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal during his 40-minute batting session.The right-hander took time to get going, as he assessed the conditions, before playing his shots. Kohli judged the bounce on the training pitches, being fully well that the Nassau County Cricket Stadium has aided the fast bowlers so far in the 20-team tournament.
India are placed in Group A along with arch-rivals Pakistan, Ireland, USA and Canada. They will face Pakistan, in New York on June 9 (Sunday), after their opening clash versus Ireland on Wednesday.
Ahead of their tournament opener, outgoing head coach Rahul Dravid spoke at length on India’s ICC trophy drought. Speaking to the press, he said, “To be very honest with you, I think we’ve actually played really well in these World Cup tournaments. In terms of our consistency, we’ve been very consistent. Obviously making the semi-final in Australia (2022). The World Test Championship is slightly different, it’s not one tournament, but it’s a whole cycle but playing extremely well in that cycle to get to the final there again.”
Dravid added, “Yes, we probably haven’t been able to get across the line in the knockout game. So, we just probably haven’t been able to execute in that last phase. So, hopefully we play good cricket to get ourselves into those positions again and then maybe play good cricket on the day to cross the line.”