Indian batters on Friday extensively honed their skill against left-arm and off-spin variations ahead of facing New Zealand's Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell in the Champions Trophy final on Sunday. The top and middle-order batters faced the in-house spin quartet of Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, before taking on an ensemble of local spinners.
In the previous match, New Zealand skipper Santner had bowled a tight spell (10-1-41-1) but Bracewell was a bit expensive at 9-0-56-0. Between them, the Kiwis spin duo has so far taken 13 wickets from four matches. Rachin Ravindra also bowled a good spell of left-arm spin returning with figures of 6-0-31-1.
With the pitch at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS) expected to offer some grip to the spinners, the Indian batters did not want to leave anything to the chance. India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said the track in Dubai could continue to offer assistance to the slow bowlers. "Wickets change a bit obviously, but here it has not changed the tendency much. Our batting has been really good. Secondly, in four matches, batting first or second we got runs from openers and when they didn't the middle-order gave some runs," he said.
Kotak said the middle-order batters getting some runs during the semifinal match against Australia too was a welcome sign. "Till now, there was not much need for power hitting and in the last match it also happened," he added.
Kotak said Indian batters can adapt to any pitch on a given day. "Our batters can adjust on any surface. So that is the key. I think we can adjust to the wicket and obviously, if it is a 350 runs kind of wicket, we might go a little hard, obviously, as there will be pace on the wicket and ball comes on.
"But on this kind of a wicket (at the DICS), you try and rotate the strike, and you try to take the game deep and then, try to finish the game if you are chasing or try and set the biggest possible target. I think we have done that pretty well," he said.
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