PERTH: After high-profile wins over archrivals Pakistan and one of the tournament favourites, South Africa, India’s biggest concern ahead of Saturday’s World Cup match here against second-tier side United Arab Emirates could be complacency.

The Indian line-up will be without coach Duncan Fletcher, who is in South Africa to attend a family funeral. But the Indians will be heavily favoured against a UAE team that have lost both its matches — albeit closely — to Zimbabwe and Ireland.

Perhaps more importantly, India pace bowler Mohammed Shami will miss the match with a mild left knee injury. Team officials on Friday said Shami, who has taken six wickets in two matches, had an ultrasound-guided injection “for his long-term management”.

India opener Shikhar Dhawan, who scored 137 in the South Africa win, said the team will miss Fletcher’s presence, “but we’ll do the same routine, and just go out and play our game”.

He admitted the team was buoyed by the large percentage of Indian fans among the 86,000 at the MCG for the South Africa match.

A similar partisan crowd is expected at the WACA on Saturday in a city where Indian expatriates make up the third-highest number of foreign-born citizens after New Zealanders and South Africans.

“It gives us a great feeling that fans follow us, and give us so much importance,” Dhawan said. “It gives us that extra edge.”

Defending champions India have shown a major form reversal in both their wins — over Pakistan and South Africa — after losing a Test series to Australia and also failing to win a match in a one-day tri-series with Australia and England.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dohni said the World Cup was the team’s focus all along, which is why they won’t be taking the UAE lightly.

“We wanted to give players more opportunities in the tri series to some extent,” Dhoni said. “There were quite a few players who were injured, also, and we kept intensity a bit low. But at the same time we knew with the World Cup right at the corner, this tournament was much more important to us.”

UAE captain Mohammed Tauqir said his squad wouldn’t be over-awed by the Indian side. “We know they are big stars, but we will take this game with the same intensity as the others. We are not intimidated by the names,” Tauqir said. “There was improvement in our performance in each game and we need to get over the line now with a win.”

Teams (from):

INDIA: M.S. Dhoni (captain), Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Akshar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma.

UAE: Mohammad Tauqir (captain), Khurram Khan, Amjad Ali, Amjad Javed, Andri Berenger, Fahad Alhashmi, Manjula Guruge, Kamran Shazad, Krishna Chandran, Mohammad Naveed, Nasir Aziz, Swapnil Patil, Rohan Mustafa, Saqlain Haider, Shaiman Anwar.

Umpires: Michael Gough (England), Billy Bowden (New Zealand).

TV umpire: Nigel Llong (England)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play