The top-order players specifically took on the likes of Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja, before clashing against a host of local spinners at the nets.
New Zealand captain had bowled a tidy spell of 10-1-41-1 in the previous fixture between these two teams last Sunday, though Michael Bracewell was slightly expensive, conceding 56 in his nine overs without taking a scalp. Rachin Ravindra too bowled six overs, conceding 31 runs in exchange of a wicket.
The track at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium is likely to give some grip to the spinners and the Indian batters did not leave anything to chance in the practice ahead of the mega encounter. India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak believes that the surface will continue to assist spinners.
“Wickets change a bit obviously, but here it has not changed the tendency much. Our batting has been really 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,” he said.
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Kotak said that the middle-order batters milking runs off spinners in the semi-final against Australia was an encouraging sign.
“Till now, there was not much need for power hitting and in the last match it also happened,” he added.
Kotak said that Indian batters can adapt to any pitch given the circumstances in front of them.
“Our batters can adjust on any surface. So that is the key. I think we can adjust to the wicket and obviously, if it is a 350 runs kind of wicket, we might go a little hard, obviously, as there will be pace on the wicket and ball comes on.
“But on this kind of a wicket (at the DICS), you try and rotate the strike, and you try to take the game deep and then, try to finish the game if you are chasing or try and set the biggest possible target. I think we have done that pretty well,” he added.
