India’s cricket team had a valuable opportunity for some quality practice against Canada on Saturday in Lauderhill, Florida, before the Super 8 stage of this T20 World Cup. They also had the chance to give some bench players a run, who had not yet featured in the first three group games. However, the Florida weather had other ideas.
Florida has seen 61 centimeters of rainfall in the last four days. Although it did not rain on Saturday when India, which had already advanced to the next round, and underdogs Canada were at the ground, the outfield was still wet and soggy due to poor drainage and the lack of ground cover.
After conducting inspections at 8 pm and 9 pm Indian time, the umpires decided to abandon the match. Similarly, Friday’s game between the United States and Ireland at the same location was washed out. This resulted in the co-hosts USA moving on to the Super 8s, and the 2009 T20 World Cup winners Pakistan being knocked out of the tournament.
India wouldn’t be too disheartened by the missed opportunity to play, given the very soft outfield, which increases the risk of injuries for the fielding side. Rohit Sharma and his team would want everyone to be fully fit ahead of their Super 8 opener against an enthusiastic Afghanistan team in Bridgetown on Thursday.
“It would have been great to get a game in, but this is the reality we’re facing. Now, we’re looking forward to solid practice days in Barbados and preparing for the upcoming matches that will happen in quick succession. The team is ready,” stated batting coach Vikram Rathour.
Photo: AP
