Dhaliwal admits bowling first will be his side’s target against Ireland

The drop-in pitches in New York have received widespread criticism for the kind of games they have produced. In the two games played on the surface, the teams batting first couldn’t even put up a three figure score on the board. 

Speaking before the game, Canada’s vice captain Navneet Dhaliwal accepted that the situation isn’t ideal, but his side will take that up as a challenge. 

“Drop in wickets takes time to settle it down. I think normally it takes around a year or so. It’s not ideal - I think it's a bit early, but still, it's a challenge,” Dhaliwal said. 

“Like the par for Dallas is what, 180 - 190, and par for here is 120 - 130. It's a different wicket and a different kind of competition, you can say. It's exciting, basically.”

Dhaliwal also backed his side’s experience of playing on the drop in pitches, and felt that the drop-in pitches provided for practice at the practice venue in New York felt quite similar to those pitches. 

“We've been preparing for it. We have had experience of the drop-ins in the Global T20. It's a local league,” Dhaliwal remarked. 

“So, we were expecting that, but I think the practice area wickets are quite similar to these, so we are kind of getting more time batting there and trying to execute tomorrow.”

Under these circumstances, Canada’s vice captain hoped that his side would be able to win the toss and bowl first as that gives them an advantage like South Africa and India got. 

“Bowling first is the target. If the other team doesn't score too much. So, you can just play normal cricket and kind of chase it, it's always kind of a benefit to bowl first.”

Amidst all these talks, Dhaliwal backed his team to just focus on the Ireland game and look at things from that perspective only. 

“I think right now we're just focusing on the Ireland game. I think that's a priority for us. We all sit together and basically saw the game, how the wicket is behaving.

And our full focus is on the Ireland game we are not thinking anything beyond that right now.”

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