T20 World Cup – Ind vs Zim – India in a West Indies frame of mind

And there’s how they spent Thursday afternoon, watching Shai Hope’s men lose to South Africa, which makes life a little less complicated for India going forward in the T20 World Cup.

India will move to Kolkata on Friday to prepare for a virtual quarter-final against West Indies. It will be the first time the two sides face each other in the T20 World Cup since 2016. Both Tilak and Arshdeep highlighted that the conditions at Eden Gardens will dictate the way India’s batters will structure their innings.

“But at the same point, we want to play the fearless cricket,” Tilak said. “The brand of cricket we played today and since last year, the same intent we want to keep in the next game as well.

“So if wicket is not good, then we’ll adjust and we’ll keep that intensity on but I would not say we want to score more than 250 but if team is permitting if we get a good start then of course we’ll go for it.”

Arshdeep touched on how the bowlers have bought into this way of playing. “As long as our batters are having fun batting on these wickets, we’re happy. We don’t mind being hit for runs. Our game plan over the last year or two has been to score big and then try to defend it. So as long as we keep getting those kinds of wickets where the batsmen can play freely – because we have batting till No. 8 – so as long as they’re getting that freedom from the wicket that they can score runs freely, we are more than happy to do the dirty job. So the thing is to enjoy the batting, and then defend the score.”

West Indies were able to put up a good score even though they were 83 for 7 in the 10th over against South Africa on Thursday. Arshdeep knows their deep batting line-up will pose a threat to India on Sunday.

“Not really one gear,” he said. “If you saw them today, they played really nicely in the middle as well, they took the game deep and then made 180 runs. So I guess they can also adapt according to the situation. But looking forward to the game, we’ll see how the wicket plays, what the conditions are like, whatever team we play that day. The focus is right now on recovery.”

Tilak contributed 44 not out off 18 balls to India’s score of 256 against Zimbabwe in Chennai. He said the key to it was throttling down. “This is a funny game, so mindset is very important. I think we had a mindset that we will wait, if the wicket falls, we will take some time.

“We played [South Africa] in the last [bilateral] series and before that also. We were enjoying at that time, whatever pressure used to be, was on the opposite bowler. If the wicket fell, we would hit six in the next ball. That’s what was in my mind. When I go to bat, I always think that if the ball is in my range, I will hit six in the first ball and then I will see for a four.

“Now, [against Zimbabwe], I was thinking – that if the wicket has fallen, I will take 2-3 balls’ time. So, we had a little mindset [change].”