Rawalpindi to Dubai. Dubai to Lahore. Lahore to Dubai. This has been New Zealand’s itinerary over the past week and having endured more travel than any other team in the Champions Trophy, the Black Caps chose to give their players a much needed rest on Friday ahead of their final against India this Sunday.
While most teams opt for optional or light training on the eve of the match these days, New Zealand have chosen to train under lights on Saturday with India scheduled to practice from 3 PM. While there have been a lot of criticisms directed at the ICC for making the schedule to the comfort of India, the New Zealand coach echoed similar sentiments even though his players downplayed the whole episode.
However, he did voice his concern about the hectic schedule. Apart from India who got to play all their matches, because of the inclement weather in Pakistan, most teams ended with just two matches. England, which lost all three, were the exception alongside New Zealand.
“There’s no doubt that coming here after Lahore – we had a full day of travel yesterday – takes it out of you a little bit. But we’ve got a couple of days now, a little bit of recovery and a little bit of planning and training towards the game. But I guess we’re deep into the tournament now and sometimes it’s not always a lot of training that you need. It’s just getting your body and your mind right to compete in the final. That will be our key focus over the next two days,” Stead said on Friday.
The juggle between Dubai and Pakistan means, New Zealand have to once again get acclimated to the conditions over here as quickly as possible. In flat decks of Pakistan, New Zealand have outplayed everyone, but in the slow conditions of Dubai their batsmen struggled to replicate the same touch. “I think that’s just about adapting and working out on your feet what you think that par score is for the day. I think the danger is you come from scoring 360-odd in a game and you think you’ll do that again immediately and you go a little bit too hard. So, for us, it’s just working out what are the right tactics on the day, who we are faced up against as well, and then adapting to that,” Stead said.
Coming into the final, New Zealand are already sweating over the availability of their premier pacer Matt Henry who hurt his shoulders while taking a catch to dismiss Rassie van der Dussen in the semi-finals. While he did return to the field and even bowl, Stead said Henry’s availability is not known at this stage.
Matt Henry injured his shoulder during New Zealand’s Champions Trophy semi-final win against South Africa in Lahore. (Reuters)
“We’ve had some scans and stuff done on him, and we’re going to give him every chance to be playing in this match. Still a little bit unknown at this stage,” Stead said about Henry, who is leading the tournament’s wicket charts with 10 wickets at an average of 16.70.
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Against India in the group game, Henry ended up with five wickets and has proved to be a headache for them in the past with his movement and pace. “He’s obviously pretty sore just from landing on the point of his shoulder. Hopefully he will be okay,” Stead said.
‘India prepared’
India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak stressed that having encountered all sorts of situations and come out on top, they are very well prepared for Sunday’s final. In the four matches, against as many opponents, India have been tested at different levels, including when batting first against New Zealand and chasing a tricky total against Australia.
“The wicket changes a little, obviously, but overall, the tendency of the wicket has not changed much. But the batting has been very good. Secondly, in four matches, batting first or second we got runs from openers and when they didn’t the middle-order gave some runs. Till now, there was not much need for power hitting and in the last match it also happened,” Kotak said.
After playing a turner against New Zealand, the pitch for the Australia game was the most batting friendly of the lot. While all four matches have been played on fresh surfaces, the final will be played on the centre pitch which was used for the match against Pakistan. Kotak said irrespective of the pitch, India’s batting group has the game to adjust to any condition.
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“Our batters, to be very honest, can adjust on any surface. The planning, when you see the wickets like this, we take it stage by stage. In the powerplay, Rohit has his own plan, Shubman plays with his own plan. And they are playing to the team’s plan. And obviously if it is a 350 wicket, guys go a little harder. On this kind of a wicket, you try and rotate strike well, you try to take the game deep, and then try and finish the game if you are chasing or try to set the bigger possible target. So I think we have done that pretty well,” Kotak added.
