A struggling India will need a spark of inspiration to prevail over New Zealand in their opening match of the Videocon Cup tri-series in Bulawayo, on Friday as they seek to come out of a prolonged slump.
But Sourav Ganguly's team has sent wrong signals ahead of the lung-opener as they chose to arrive at the venue just 24 hours before the start of the game and this attitude to the opponents could come to haunt them in the rest of the tournament.
| |||||||||||
"That we have been here for 10 days is an advantage. This is a place which takes getting used to. The day might start mildly but the afternoon could cause burn in the lungs," Fleming said.
When early momentum is what every team seeks ahead of a tournament, the Indians chose to follow a shambolic travel plan and then stubbornly spent two days in Harare to make up for the training camp they missed in India.
The week has unfolded in utter confusion, if not disharmony, for the Indians who were first refused a two-day training camp by the BCCI which publicly accused them of indiscipline after a few players turned up late at a Mumbai hotel prior to the squad's departure.
The travel plan was befuddling as it made little sense to halt at Harare when staying at Bulawayo would have been the sensible option.
The tourists spent two days training extensively but how much the lack of acclimatisation could come to haunt them would be known in the next 24 hours.
The fading winter is still enough to keep the pitch dew-heavy with an early start at 9.30 am but then the blazing sun saps energy quickly.
The pitch, overall, is a batting beauty but the Indians would be hoping for a lot of factors to fall in their favour if they want a resounding start to the tour.
The New Zealand batsmen, after warming up against Zimbabwe, would be looking to carry on their good work against India. They did not stretch prime pacer Shane Bond either and would unleash him on the Indians tomorrow.
Fleming was looking for further improvement in his team's play and said: "We are very keen to know about ourselves and understanding our own players rather than worry about the opponents. This is a thing which a lot other teams ignore."
But still it would be naive to expect that Fleming and Ganguly would not try to settle a few points over the next fortnight.
While the Indians were vanquished in New Zealand just before the 2003 World Cup, the men in blue had their revenge in the mega event itself which sent Fleming and Co. hurtling out of tournament.
Teams:
India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, Mohammad Kaif, M S Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, J P Yadav.
New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Daniel Vettori, Andrew Adams, Hamish Marshall, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns, Hamish Marshall, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Lou Vincent, James Marshall.
Umpires: Darryl Harper (Aus) and Russell Tiffin (SA)
Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka).
