Pant, Hardik, Arshdeep headline India’s warm-up win

Having endured a difficult IPL season on multiple fronts, Hardik Pandya served up a reminder of his elite all-round skills as India warmed up for the T20 World Cup with a 60-run win over Bangladesh in New York.

Hardik scored an unbeaten 23-ball 40 and took 1 for 10 off his first two overs before conceding 20 in his third. But it was heartening for India to have their main allrounder influence the game as he did, in conditions – the pitch was two-paced and the outfield slow – that helped his bowling but not necessarily his batting. The other headline acts came from Rishabh Pant, who retired out after scoring a breezy 32-ball 53, and Arshdeep Singh, who took two wickets in a spell of incisive new-ball swing.

Virat Kohli only landed in New York on the eve of this match, so it was expected that he wouldn’t play the warm-up fixture. It wasn’t expected, though, that Yashasvi Jaiswal – the other candidate to open alongside Rohit Sharma – didn’t play any part either. India opened, instead, with Rohit and Sanju Samson.

It could have been an audition for first-choice wicketkeeper. On the day, Samson scored 1 off 6, and was lbw in the second over to a Shoriful Islam in-ducker. There seemed to be a chance that this ball may have gone on to miss leg stump, but DRS was not in use so Samson had to go.

Pant replaced Samson, and proceeded to play the most fluent innings of the day. India were 33 for 1 in five overs when he began their acceleration with three sixes off Shakib Al Hasan in the sixth. He hit four fours and four sixes in all, and targeted the area behind the wicket with aplomb, using the reverse-sweep and his trademark no-look scoop over short fine leg to telling effect.

Pant kept wicket too, rather than Samson, and by the end of the day it seemed fairly certain that he would take the big gloves on Wednesday, when India begin their tournament proper against Ireland.

Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik were the other major contributors to India’s total of 182 for 5, scoring a combined 71 off 41, while Shivam Dube, who batted between them at No. 5, struggled with the conditions. Dube swung at the spinners repeatedly, but only made one true connection, a massive six over wide long-off, while scoring 14 off 16.

Then, having only bowled just the one over in 14 games during the IPL, he proceeded to bowl three here and pick up two wickets, though Bangladesh were already 42 for 5 when he came on.

Ravindra Jadeja batted at No. 7, but Axar Patel, India’s other left-arm fingerspinner, bowled before him and picked up a wicket. It remains to be seen which of the two feature in India’s first XI, or if they go with both and leave out the wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav.

India play three of their four group-stage games in New York, and if conditions remain broadly similar, they may be able to get quite a bit of bowling out of their four allrounders – Hardik, Jadeja, Axar and Dube.

Jasprit Bumrah is the first name on the bowling end of India’s team sheet, but who partners him with the new ball? On this day, Arshdeep made a serious case for himself, swinging the new ball prodigiously and getting Soumya Sarkar and Litton Das out in Test-match manner.

Mohammed Siraj was excellent too, getting the ball to behave awkwardly from a hard length, and dismissing Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto with one such delivery that cramped him for room. On the evidence of their displays here, India will have a hard task picking just one of these two, assuming they go with two frontline quicks and Hardik as the third seamer.

For Bangladesh, who came into this match on the back of a shock series defeat to USA, the result reinforced major worries going into the World Cup, chiefly their long-standing lack of power-hitting. India hit ten sixes in their 20 overs, and Bangladesh just one. Of the four batters who faced at least 10 balls in their chase of 183, only one – Mahmudullah, who top-scored with a 28-ball 40 – went at above a run a ball.

Mahmudullah also bowled two tidy overs and dismissed Rohit, and took the catch of the day to send back Dube, sprinting to his right from long-on and juggling the ball expertly while stepping out of and then back into the field of play. All in all, it was a good day for the 38-year-old.

Bangladesh suffered an injury scare when left-arm quick Shoriful left the field five balls into India’s final over when he attempted to stop a straight hit from Hardik and took a painful hit to his left hand. The extent of his injury wasn’t clear by the time the game ended.

The margin of India’s victory, however, may have been inflated by the resources available to the two teams. India’s quicks did the bulk of their early damage, picking up four wickets between them to reduce Bangladesh to 41 for 5. Bangladesh, however, only bowled five overs of genuine pace – and one of gentle medium-pace from Soumya Sarkar. This was because they rested both Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman, both of whom could have caused India problems on this pitch.

Brief scores:
India 182/5 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 23, Rishabh Pant 53, Suryakumar Yadav 31, Hardik Pandya 40*; Mahedi Hassan 1-22, Shoriful Islam 1-26, M Mahmudullah 1-16, Tanvir Islam 1-29) beat Bangladesh 122/ 9  in 20 overs (Shakib Al Hassan 28, Mahmudullah 40; Arshdeep Singh 2-12, Jasprit Bumrah 1-12, Mohammed Siraj 1-17, Hardik Pandya 1-30, Axar Patel 1-10, Shivam Dube 2-13) by 60 runs

(Cricinfo)