‘It’s not an advantage’- Sharma addresses India knowing World T20 semi-final venue beforehand
Captain Rohit Sharma believes it is not an advantage that India knew their semi-final venue of the ICC Men’s World T20 beforehand.
Speaking to media operatives in Guyana on Wednesday, the opener was asked pointedly about India being aware of the match venue once they made the final four.
India will play England in Semi-Final Two at the National Stadium, Providence, on Thursday from 10:30h, a timing that aligns with prime time television in India.
Rohit was also asked about the extended time being allotted for Semi-Final Two in the absence of a reserve day, and the possibility of inclement weather being a factor at Providence.
On conditions…
“I don’t think it’s an advantage – I mean a lot of these players have played in different types of venues. At the end of the day, you’ve got to play good cricket to win a cricket game. That’s how I look at it. And obviously, look, the overhead conditions is in nobody’s control. We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Sharma said.
“The only thing I’m worried is if the game goes on until pretty late, we have a charter flight. We might miss that flight, but that’s OK. It’s the ICC and the Cricket West Indies headache to get us to the next venue, but we’ll focus on how we can play this game well and get the results in our favour. That’s what we will be focusing on but yeah, at the end of the day two good cricket teams are going to play so it’s going to be a great game.
On the possibility of rain…
“Look I think we want to come here thinking that it is going to be a 40-over game. We don’t want to think it’s going to be a shortened game. But if it does, we will change whatever we need to change in terms of strategy, combinations, or whatever it is. Whatever we think is possibly the best chance for us to win the game. So, we will be prepared for all kind of scenarios.”
“It’s not like it’s not happened before. It has happened before as well. In the last T20 World Cup, there was a shortened game as well against Bangladesh. So, all those things happens and we will come tomorrow here and see what the scenario is. But ideally, for everyone, it’ll be nice to have a 40-over game. But again, we’ll be ready to adapt to whatever is there in front of us.”
