T20 World Cup – Ind vs Zim – India in a West Indies frame of mind

And they spent Thursday afternoon watching Shai Hope’s men lose to South Africa, making life a little less complicated for India moving forward in the T20 World Cup.

India will travel to Kolkata on Friday to prepare for their virtual quarter-final against West Indies. This is the first time the two teams will face each other in a T20 World Cup since 2016. Both Tilak and Arshdeep emphasized that the conditions at Eden Gardens will dictate how the Indian batsmen structure their innings.

“But at the same time, we want to play brave cricket,” Tilak said. “The brand of cricket we played today and from last year we want to maintain the same intention in the next game.

“So if the wicket is not good, we will adjust and maintain that intensity. But I won’t say we want to score 250-plus. But if the team allows us, if we get off to a good start, of course we will do that.”

Arshdeep commented on how the bowlers have accepted this style of play. “As long as our batsmen are happy batting on these wickets, we are happy. We don’t mind conceding runs. Our game plan for the last year or two has been to score big runs and then try to defend them. So as long as we continue to get those kinds of wickets where the batsmen are free to play (because we bat down to number eight), as long as we get freedom from wickets where they can score freely, we are much less comfortable doing the dirty work. I’m happier, so the important thing is to enjoy batting and defend my scores.”

West Indies were able to score well in their 10th over against South Africa on Thursday despite being batted at 83 for 7. Arshdeep knows that their solid batting line-up will pose a threat to India on Sunday.

“It’s not really one piece of equipment,” he said. “If you saw today, we played really well in the middle as well, dug deep into the game and scored 180, so I think we may adapt depending on the situation. But looking forward to the game, we’ll see how the wicket goes, what the conditions are like and what kind of team we’re playing that day. Right now, the focus is on recovery.”

Tilak contributed 44 off 18 balls in India’s 256-run win over Zimbabwe in Chennai. He said the key to that is reducing throttling. “It’s a fun game so the mindset is very important. I think we had the mindset that we would wait and if wickets fell it would take some time.

“We played. [South Africa] at the end [bilateral] series and before that. At that time, we were enjoying putting some pressure on the opposing pitcher. If the wicket falls we will hit a six in the next ball. That was in my mind. When I go to bat, I always think that if the ball is in my range, I’ll hit a six on the first ball and then a four.

“now, [against Zimbabwe]I was thinking it would take two or three balls for the wicket to fall. So we had a bit of a mindset. [change].”