Follow UsIndia’s last league match in ICC Champions Trophy will be against New Zealand on March 2. Meanwhile, the first semifinal in Dubai will be played on March 4, for which India have already qualified. There will be a maximum of 36-40 hours of rest time between matches.
India’s assistant coach, Ryan ten Doeschate, wants his team to be prepared for the strenuous challenge that awaits them.
India, who are travelling with four allrounders in the squad including Hardik Pandya, are training hard for the game against New Zealand and might prefer their spin bowling allrounders to bowl more overs and share the bowling load along with the pacers and Pandya.
“We've had two pretty tough training sessions, so that's been the preparation," ten Doeschate said, as quoted by PTI.
"In terms of the bench strength, I think the priority is making sure that we have our best guys available and fully fit for the second game [semifinal on March 4].
“But we also don't want to rest them for another two days [India have had a week off]. So to get that balance right, we might just try to share the bowling out a little bit. But we obviously want to win against New Zealand as well. It's important that we keep that momentum going and obviously to top the group as well. So the balance of those two things I just mentioned [is] to be thought about.”
Ten Doeschate hinted that the Indian pacers might not be bowling their full quota against New Zealand.
“They've had a lot of rest now. But it's how you back the two games up. So if all the seamers are going to bowl 10 overs, and then say we bowl second in the first game, we're bowling 36 hours later, we're bowling first, that's quite a workload,” the former Netherlands allrounder said.
"So that's what I was alluding to. One of the options is to make sure the guys don't bowl their full quota of overs, if that opportunity allows itself. But we're ready to manage that in the field and try and keep the guys as fresh as possible for the first and the final.”