India vs South Africa, T20 World Cup: Men in Blue didn’t do much wrong in Perth, Proteas were simply better

As Pakistan finished a dreary win against the Netherlands at the Optus Stadium, the Indian team had arrived at the ground and was warming up. Along with South Africa, the players were in the nets, with pre-match rituals underway. A little snippet made its way to the press box – Deepak Hooda was batting hard in the nets.

‘Make of that news what you will’ was the general consensus. Even so, there was more to it. Hooda batting in the nets was nothing special. Often team reserves and the 12th man undergo rigorous training sessions to stay ready. But, this development on match eve? This development seemed different.

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Then, the players made their way onto the ground and got into their respective bowling, fielding and batting drills. Where was Hooda? He was practicing bowling in tandem with R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. That was the first big hint, an obvious one at that. The second one came when Axar Patel seemed to be loitering around without his usual pre-match intensity. It was more or less confirmed at that point – India had made an unusual, if not overall surprising change to its playing eleven.

Here’s the obvious question. Did it make sense? Yes, indeed.

On pre-match day, India had an optional training session. Skipper Rohit Sharma did not bat or participate in training otherwise. But he still did visit the ground to take a look at the pitch. Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid had a long look at the wicket, and decided that it was going to be a bowler friendly one. Even the Pakistan-Netherlands game proved as much with batting proving difficult for both sides on the day.

Undefeated South Africa go on top of the Group 2 table