New Delhi, February 11 – Abhishek Sharma's stomach infection poses a greater threat to India than their World Cup opponents, Namibia.
After a lackluster batting performance on a difficult Wankhede pitch in the opener against the USA, the Indian batting lineup would like to unleash their full potential on a Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, which could be considered a dream surface for quality teams.
Namibia would be the team to suffer, as they are not expected to pose much of a challenge to the dominant defending champions in their second group A game of the T20 tournament here on Thursday.
In terms of quality, the defending champions are far ahead of the African team, which barely put up a fight against fellow Associate nation, the Netherlands, at this very ground.
To be fair to India, the match against Namibia is more of a practice game where they would like to bat first and give their batsmen a chance to perform well.
The quality difference is so significant that any of the lower-level Indian state teams competing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy could potentially bowl Namibia out for very low scores every day.
For India, Abhishek's stomach infection and viral fever are a concern.
He was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday after two days of treatment, but it would not be advisable to play him in the crucial game against Pakistan on Sunday without allowing him to fully recover.
Abhishek's presence would be a significant advantage for the opposition in that high-stakes match.
The Namibia match could be a golden opportunity for Sanju Samson, who has been struggling, to regain his form and score runs after a string of failures that led to his demotion.
"Sanju is feeling better now and understands his role in the team," said assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate at the pre-match press conference.
"He is a good player, he gets along well with the team, and he is training well, which is what we expect from everyone."
For Namibia to stop a batting lineup like India would be a challenging task. Even more challenging for their batters would be to face Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, and Hardik Pandya in tandem.
Out of the top six, only all-rounder JJ Smit has a strike rate of over 140, while none of the others in the top five have crossed the acceptable strike rate for today's standards.
Facing Chakravarthy could be a major challenge for the Namibian team, as they rarely face bowlers of such calibre.
"He has been working on a few new deliveries that you might see him use in different stages," Ten Doeschate hinted that the Namibia match could be a testing ground for Chakravarthy's new deliveries.
The ICC scheduling team, along with the broadcasters, who rightly have control over the matches, have ensured that, except for the commercial-driven game against Pakistan, the rest of the league stage matches will be against teams that could even be defeated by an India A, B, or C team in this format.
A third-string India A team had dismissed Namibia for less than 100 in a warm-up game before the tournament.
Even if the Pakistan match goes according to plan, India will eventually make it to the Super Eight, where the real challenge begins.
Even there, the group stage arrangements ensure that India will not face Australia or South Africa if they reach the semi-final.
In terms of scheduling, venue selection, match timings, and group arrangements, commercial considerations have ensured that until the semi-final, India will have an easy time.
If they reach the second-to-last day, it will all depend on luck and determination. For now, it's Namibia's turn to face the pressure.
Teams:
India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd Siraj, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Rinku Singh.
Namibia: Gerhard Erasmus (captain), Jan Balt, Zane Green (wk), Malan Kruger, Dylan Leicher, Lauren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, William Myburgh, JJ Smit, Jack Brassel, Max Heingo, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo, Ruben Trumpelmann.
Match starts: 7 PM.
