5 min readAhmedabadUpdated: Mar 8, 2026 02:48 PM IST
The arena, a vast canyon, sprung to life when India came to train, half an hour past six in the evening. The policemen in stiff khakis prowling near the electronic fence after their drills went into a frenzy, waving at the players and taking their pictures, before their superior officer barked out the choicest expletives and drove them out of the ground. In the stands, the brigade of flag-men were swinging flags as large as them.
Oblivious to all, in a bubble of intense focus, India’s cricketers were feeling the arena. Suryakumar Yadav walked around the stadium, sniffing the air, touching the grass and forging an intimacy with the ground. “A day before the game, we are all relaxed at the training, just going through the last round of preparation,” he said. As though before the board exam, they were revising the lessons they had learned, testing themselves with the puzzles that had confounded them and fine-tuning the match-up permutations. Indians were neither relaxed nor nervous, but ensured that everything was in order.
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The left-handed batters rigorously attacked the spinners. Ishan Kishan pasted nearly every ball off-spinner Washington Sundar bowled into the stands. Often, he jinked out of the crease and slapped him, besides slashing and sweeping him. Rinku Singh unfurled pugnacious slog-sweeps whereas Tilak Varma was inclined to hit them over cover, the ball often cannoning off the net poles. The off-spinner match-up would assume significance in the game. New Zealand have a resourceful spin quartet — Cole McConchie and Glenn Phillips in the off-spin department, Rachin Ravindra and Mitchell Santner with the left-arm. Rachin has been the most potent: eight of his 11 scalps have been right-handers, leaking only 6.32 runs an over. India, meanwhile, have lost 15 wickets to spinners. How India nullifies New Zealand’s spin potency could form the game’s crux.
India’s Varun Chakaravarthy and Mohammed Siraj during practice session ahead of T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad. (Express photo by Bhupendra Rana)
Although captain Suryakumar Yadav allayed fears of another meltdown against the off-spin variant, the emphasis during the training session was hitting the spinners. He claimed that he and his batsmen never had a chat about off-spinners, and quipped philosophically that, ‘khelna to padega.’ The form of his gun spinner Varun Chakaravarthy has been a concern too. Surya backed him to come good, and Varun had a lengthy spell — the focus being to pitch the ball in the spinner’s good length area. In recent times, he had erred on the fuller side. He tossed the ball up frequently and beat the off-colour Abhishek Sharma a couple of times. Abhishek, watched hawkishly by batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, eschewed booming strokes. He rolled his wrists over the spinners. He drove the seamers down the ground. Only towards the end of the session did his enterprise grow, lofting the net bowlers.
Across the ground, under the scorching Motera sun, New Zealand had their own obsession: Jasprit Bumrah.
Tim Seifert requested the throw-down specialist to hyperextend the elbow as much as possible, trying to replicate Bumrah’s action. At one point the ball slipped loose, landing near him like one of Bumrah’s cutters. Seifert chuckled, but the experiment was abandoned — the specialist simply couldn’t land the ball consistently enough. He resumed his staple throw-downs and flayed them to all parts of the ground. But they didn’t linger long enough to watch Bumrah bowl off breaks in the nets, of course with a more pronounced doorknob twist of his wrists.
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The New Zealand team in a practice session at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad ahead of the T20 World Cup final match against India. (Express Photo |Bhupendra Rana)
The numbers, on the surface, offer New Zealand some comfort. Bumrah has bled 7.05 runs an over and picked only 16 wickets in 14 games against them — not the suffocating returns he has produced against other sides. And yet he dwells in their heads. As captain Mitchell Santner said: “I think he should be in everyone’s conversation, the way he’s been going.”
The tough overs from Bumrah are a reality of these times. The fascinating question is how New Zealand’s aggressive top order will treat him — with the caution England showed, or with the nonchalance they used to dismantle Lungi Ngidi in the semifinal, Finn Allen scooping the last ball of Ngidi’s first over for six. In every game of this tournament, New Zealand’s batsmen have taken on the opposition’s lead bowler. Bumrah, in his hometown, will be the sternest of them all. His craft transcends surfaces. He bends scripts to his whims.
New Zealand’s batsmen were in full aggro mode in the nets — their own spinners barely bowled, but the net bowlers were leathered to all corners of the ground. It may well be a preview of what unfolds on Sunday.
