T20 World Cup: The complications of going spin-heavy under lights in Adelaide | Cricket News – Times of India

Axar, moreover, is not always required to bowl his full quota, so do India now need a specialist like leggie Yuzvendra Chahal? Australia is, after all, the land of leg-spin, and spinners who take the ball away from the right-handers are gradually coming into their own in this tournament.
So where does Chahal, who has been a mere passenger so far, figure in India’s plans? Or is the team content to beef up the batting instead with Axar’s presence?
The catch is that the games in Adelaide in which spin had a say were morning games, while India will play England in the evening under lights, which again complicates things when it comes to picking the perfect XI for the semifinal. In the one evening game India have already played here, against Bangladesh, they found the ball coming nicely on to the bat under lights.
Asked specifically if Chahal would be played in Adelaide, coach Rahul Dravid kept his options open. “We have a completely open mind. Anybody who comes into the 15 will not potentially make us weaker, the kind of squad we’ve picked. We’ll have to go there and see. I watched some of the games (in Adelaide) and I know the tracks were slow and they gripped and they turned a bit. But then, we might be playing on a completely new strip in Adelaide.
“The strip on which we played against Bangladesh did not spin. So if it’s slow we’ll play according to the situation. If we think it might play differently, we’ll have to put up a squad to match that.”
Asked if there were concerns about Axar’s bowling, Dravid said, “In a few games. But he’s had good games as well. Again, that’s the nature of this tournament, this format. He bowled a very good over against Bangladesh just before the rain break. Yes, he would have liked to have ha d better days but. . . you can get taken apart.”
The one lead spinner India have picked in all games, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, had a good game against Zimbabwe at the MCG (3/22 off his four ) and said he had already been looking forward to Adelaide and the England game. “Wickets are not something that I always go by, it’s about what comes out of the hand. At the back of my mind I also wanted to think about the next game. . . you know what you can expect (there) so there were some things in my head which I wanted to try out.”
Asked to elaborate about bowling in Adelaide, Ashwin said, “We need to understand that we’re playing in different conditions. We will be playing the night game. . . in the last night game we played, the ball slid on nicely for the team batting second. So we cannot go in with any preconceived notions. The curators also know how to prepare a pitch for the semifinal.”
Clearly, India are keeping all options open on the spin front.