PERTH: India’s batting coach said on Saturday that his side is not fazed by fast bowling as it prepared to face South Africa in their Group 2 game on a bouncy Perth pitch at the Twenty20 World Cup.

One of the favourites to win the tournament, India have had a perfect start to the Super 12 stage with two wins, including one over arch-rivals Pakistan. A win against the Proteas on Sunday would all but ensure a semi-finals spot for Rohit Sharma-led India.

But a South African attack featuring Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortje is set to test Indian batsmen on a Perth track that has provided pace and bounce aplenty in the World Cup so far.

Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour, however, expressed confidence in his side’s ability to navigate the conditions.

“The group of batters that we have in our team, I don’t think pace really bothers us that much,” he said.

Superstar Virat Kohli has led India’s batting charge Down Under, hitting an unbeaten 82 in the last-ball win over Pakistan in Melbourne. Kohli, skipper Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav then hammered the Netherlands bowling as a second win took them to the top of Group 2. KL Rahul’s form has been a concern, however, after he scored four and nine in the two games.

Asked if the team management is looking to replace Rahul with Rishabh Pant, Rathour responded with a firm “No”.

“Two games, I don’t think that’s a good enough sample size,” he said. “[Rahul] has been batting really well and he’s batted really well in the practice games also.”

So far at the World Cup, India have not made explosive starts and gone instead with a more conservative approach and getting runs in the final few overs.

“I don’t think these are 200, 200-plus wickets, so we’ll need to adapt,” Rathour said. “I think we have done pretty well in that regard so far.”

NORTJE WANTS PACERS TO ‘KEEP CALM’

Meanwhile, Nortje called his team’s pace attack “one of the best”, but urged fellow quicks to ke­ep their calm on a bouncy Perth pitch.

Perth’s new stadium has witnessed a similar pace and bounce to the city’s old WACA Ground and Nortje said with bowlers allowed just one bouncer an over in the T20 format it is important to keep emotions in check.

“With T20 cricket hopefully somewhere in the future we can have two bouncers an over, that would be unbelievable,” Nortje told reporters. “But on wickets like this, obviously you have got one bouncer, so you have to try and not to get carried away. Sometimes it looks nice, but not as effective, so be as effective as possible and keep your emotions intact.”

Nortje praised his team’s bowling unit. “We back ourselves, we see ourselves as one of the best pace attacks there is. We have got a great variety, we cover a lot of aspects, we cover a lot of bases with our attack. I am sure the boys are looking forward to tomorrow.”

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2022