T20 World Cup: Pant's grand return in Indian colours and other takeaways from practice match vs Bangladesh

India ticked a number of boxes with their clinical performance against Bangladesh in their only practice match ahead of the T20 World Cup on Saturday. The Indians had only recently arrived in New York after a hectic couple of months, with every member of the squad having been part of the 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

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The Men in Blue however, appeared fresh as ever as they took on the the Tigers in the first-ever competitive game of cricket at the newly-inaugurated Nassau County International Stadium in New York City.

As It Happened | India vs Bangladesh, T20 World Cup warmup match

Opting to bat, the Indians ended up posting 182/5, falling well short of 200, a score that appeared within reach at one point. Their score, however, would be quite a challenging one for the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side as it wasn’t the easiest of surfaces to bat on, with the Bangladeshis getting reduced to 41/5 at one stage and eventually finishing on 122/9 in reply.

Here are some of the key takeaways from India’s only warm-up match ahead of the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup:

Samson fails to fire as a makeshift opener

Given it was a practice match and the result of the game didn’t really matter in the end, both teams could afford to experiment with their lineups in order to achieve the ideal combination heading into the tournament.

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Keeping that in mind the Indians made a big change right away by having Sanju Samson open alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, giving him an opportunity to stake claim to a spot in the XI with a big knock.

The Rajasthan Royals captain, however, collected just one run in six deliveries before getting trapped leg-before by Shoriful Islam’s bowling in the second over of the innings, making it all the more difficult for the team management to slot him in the XI with so much competition for slots.

Pant makes grand comeback in an Indian jersey

Rishabh Pant had made his highly-anticipated return to competitive cricket in the recently-concluded IPL, scoring 446 runs at a strike rate of 155.40. It was on Saturday however, that he finally made his grand comeback in an Indian jersey for the first time since surviving a car accident in December 2022.

Pant stamped his credentials as the first-choice keeper-batter in the XI with a knock of 53 off 32 balls, retiring hurt shortly after bringing up his half-century in order to give his teammates an opportunity to bat. Pant was striking the ball as cleanly as ever and appeared to have carried his IPL 2024 form over the T20 World Cup. Additionally, he was batting at the No 3 spot, giving the Men in Blue flexibility of playing him in the top three as well as in the middle order.

Pandya the finisher back with a bang

It wasn’t just Pant impressing with the bat on Saturday even if he was the only one going past the fifty mark. Suryakumar Yadav struck an 18-ball 31 while vice-captain Hardik Pandya managed to finish the game for the Indians and guide them past 180 with an unbeaten 40 off 23 balls, smashing two fours and four sixes along the way.

Pandya had been having a tough time in the IPL, where he struggled to contribute either with bat or with the ball in his maiden season as Mumbai Indians captain, and was also booed by fans both home and away while his team finished at the bottom of the table.

The all-rounder, however, appeared a relaxed figure in New York on Saturday with the burden of captaincy finally off his shoulders. He also had fans cheering for him for a healthy change.

Arshdeep remains a force in the powerplay

Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh had finished the seventh-highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 17 wickets across the season for Punjab Kings but was guilty of leaking runs. On Saturday, the left-arm pacer not only was the pick of the bowlers across both camps with figures of 2/12 from two overs, but he was by far the most probing of all bowlers who got to roll their arms over on Saturday.

Arshdeep took just four deliveries to make an impact, removing Soumya Sarkar for a four-ball duck after having him poke at an away-swinging delivery that resulted in a simple catch for keeper Pant. Arshdeep would then castle Litton Das in his next over with a length ball that jagged back in and breached the batter’s defence, clipping the top of the stumps as a result, leaving the Tigers reeling on 7/2.

Dube the bowler impresses

It wasn’t just Arshdeep impressing with the ball though. One of the key objectives for the Men in Blue in their warm-up match was to assess Shivam Dube the bowler, with the seam-bowling all-rounder having been under-utilised on that front by the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2024.

While Dube the batter hardly got going, scoring a scratchy 14 off 16 balls, he more than made up for it with figures of 2/13 from three overs that included wickets off consecutive deliveries in the final over of the Bangladesh innings that had the Mumbaikar on a hat-trick at one point.

The target was already well beyond Bangladesh’s reach at that point, and the Indians could have afforded not to bother if the last over went for 20-plus runs or not. Dube, however, made the most of the opportunity afforded to him in order to highlight his utility with the ball beside the bat.