It is very rare in global tournaments that teams that are on par with each other would clash in the semifinals, instead of the general expectation of them meeting in the final.

At a sunny Adelaide, India, and England, two sides with equal amounts of firepower, will be vying for a spot in the final when they meet at the Adelaide Oval in the second semifinal of the Men’s T20 World Cup on Thursday.

Clashes between England and India in T20Is have been frequent and competitive in the past few years, including in the bilateral series in July. But they have not met in a T20 World Cup match for a decade, or in the knockout phase of an ICC tournament since the 2013 Champions Trophy final.

While India entered the knockouts on the back of superlative batting from Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav and a hugely effective bowling attack in Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, and Ravichandran Ashwin, England bat very deep, possess all-round strength and have the pacers as well as spinners to challenge oppositions.

First things first, Thursday’s semifinal is going to be played on a used pitch. With short square boundaries and longer front-of-the-square dimensions at Adelaide Oval, it makes the toss crucial and batting first becomes all the more important. The importance of spinners also increases as the pitch tends to be sluggish later in the match.

In that case, India would really want for their top order to set the tone right in the first six overs. In the power-play phase of the tournament, India scored 5.96 runs per over, which is less than England’s 6.79 runs. With the new ball moving around, it has meant that India had to move away from its ultra-attacking approach to being cautious.

Moreover, the highest opening partnership in the tournament between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul is just 27. Kohli currently leads the run-charts though he has been a little cautious against spin, while Suryakumar is third on the list with an extremely-high strike rate of 193.96.

Suryakumar, the right-handed batter who is also the top-ranked T20I batter, has also been a huge force behind India having the best run rate in the last four overs of the tournament at 11.90 runs per over and changing the tempo of the innings to propel India from a par score to a winning total.

With the dilemma between Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant still on apart from Hardik Pandya doing nothing worthwhile with the bat after the opener against Pakistan, India needs to carefully ponder over who between the two wicketkeeper-batters has to be picked for an extremely crunch game.

With the ball, left-arm pacer Arshdeep has been a revelation with 10 scalps in five matches while senior right-arm pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has an economy rate of 5.4 and has also dismissed Jos Buttler five times in T20 matches. But the pocket of weakness that India can look to exploit could come through their spinners.

With left-arm spinner Axar Patel not excelling much in Australian conditions, he could be replaced by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to team up with the off-spin of Ravichandran Ashwin. Moreover, with England’s batting strike rate against spin being just 100.5 and averaging just 22 in the tournament, it is an area that India will definitely look to exploit.

Though they have the power and style of Buttler, Alex Hales, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, and Moeen Ali with the bat, England’s batting hasn’t clicked in unison yet in the tournament.

Their death-overs bowling, which was a huge weakness in last year’s tournament, has become a huge strength, as seen from the economy rate of six and picking seven wickets in this phase, with left-arm pacer Sam Curran being the leader in their end-overs bowling transformation, while the right-arm pace duo of Stokes and Chris Woakes handles the fast-bowling duties upfront.

England also has some fitness concerns with Dawid Malan nursing a groin injury and tearaway pacer Mark Wood having body stiffness. India also had some hand-in-the-mouth moments when Rohit and Kohli took some blows in the practice sessions, but were fine later.

Come Thursday, the Adelaide Oval will be bright and breathtaking in readiness for a clash of equals to decide the second finalist of the Men’s T20 World Cup.

Squads

India:

Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammad Shami.

England:

Jos Buttler (captain & wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Tymal Mills, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Alex Hales.

A fighting fifty from Daryl Mitchell (53 not out off 35) helped New Zealand post 152-4 against Pakistan in the first semifinal of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), here on Wednesday.

Apart from Mitchell, the likes of Kane Williamson (46 off 42), and Devon Conway (21 off 20) were the other main contributors with the bat for New Zealand, who chose to bat first after winning the toss.

On the other hand, Shaheen Afridi was the most successful bowler for Pakistan with his 2/24, and Mohammad Nawaz (1/12) was the other wicket-taker.

Brief scores: New Zealand 152-4 in 20 overs (Daryl Mitchell 53 not out, Kane Williamson 46; Shaheen Afridi 2/24) vs Pakistan.

The dimensions at the picturesque Adelaide Oval are different as compared to other grounds in Australia. Depending on which used pitch will be picked for Thursday’s semifinal between India and England at the T20 World Cup, the square boundaries are around 57-67 meters, while the straight boundaries are longer, in between 79-88 meters.

In this situation, India has a slight edge over England, having played their tense five-run win over Bangladesh via the DLS method at this venue last week. England, on the other hand, will be playing at the Adelaide Oval for the first time in the competition.

India skipper Rohit Sharma noted that the change in dimensions ahead of the semifinals required a shift in mindset for batters as well as bowlers at Adelaide Oval while believing the advantage of having played here earlier would help them on Thursday.

“That’s one of the challenges that we have had in this tournament. Usually when you play — for example, last year in Dubai, the dimension of the ground didn’t change too much. We know there was one side bigger, but other than that, not too many things changed.

“But when we play here in Australia, obviously some of the grounds have longer, straighter boundaries, some of the grounds have smaller on the sides. So you’ve got to adjust to it as quickly as possible.

“Guys have not been here before. For them, it’s a huge challenge to adjust to that length and the shot-making, as well. I think we adapted to that pretty nicely. We were put under pressure in some of the games, but I thought we responded to that pressure really well,” said the right-handed opener in the pre-match press conference.

With Adelaide having a reputation for being a high-scoring ground, Rohit admitted that the short boundaries have been the center of talk amongst the Indian think-tank. “Adelaide is one ground where again, you have to go back and understand what sort of tactics you want to use here because the last game we played in Melbourne, was completely different. Now, in Adelaide, the side boundaries are a little shorter.

“Of course, we’ve had a lot of talk about it in our group, about what we want to do before we actually played that game against Bangladesh because since then we’ve been playing on the grounds which had longer side boundaries, so you could bowl your slower balls into the pitch.

“The bouncers and the batsmen needed to adjust to that, as well, but when we came to Adelaide it was a completely different scenario, and we do understand that having played a game here, we do understand what we need to come up with when it comes to planning and tactics.”

In the tournament, Rohit has scored just 89 runs in five matches and was out in the powerplay four times, barring a scratchy 53 against the Netherlands at SCG. He explained how changes in the nature of pitch and variations in boundary dimensions have made it difficult for his batters to play instinctive shots.

“A lot of the players in our squad are quite instinctive players. They like to see the ball and react to it, and if you see from the top order until No. 7, No. 8, we’ve seen different kinds of performances from them, as well. That’s only because a lot of the players are instinctive, and also some of the players like to play according to the situation, as well.

“I remember talking about coming out and playing fearlessly for a number of months now, but certainly in this tournament it has not happened quite well for us because looking at how the conditions are here, you just don’t want to come out and swing your bat; you want to understand the conditions. The ball is swinging a little more than what we have experienced in the last year.”

That deviation, coupled with fast bowlers calling the shots in favorable conditions for them, has meant that India hasn’t been able to take out their ultra-attacking approach with the bat, which requires them to attack the bowlers from word go.

“So you’ve got to respect that condition. It’s not just us; you can see the number from the entire tournament of the powerplay overs from all teams. It’s not been that great from all the teams. It’s only because of the conditions that have to offer, and I thought that is where our adaptability came into the picture, and guys adapted quite well, understood the situation, and played accordingly, which is a good sign.

“That is what a good team can do, adapt quickly, assess the conditions really quick because it’s not — we don’t have too much time here. All of that I think we did that pretty well. It’s just about now understanding and going out and executing the same plans.”

Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik is yet to play an impactful knock and provide India with the required finishing touches in the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup. With all his scores in the tournament till now in single digits, India tried Rishabh Pant in their final Group 2 match against Zimbabwe.

Though Pant failed to make a substantial contribution with the bat, making just three runs against Zimbabwe in Melbourne, questions have arisen over Karthik coming back in the side for the semifinal against England at Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

On the eve of the semifinal, India skipper Rohit Sharma didn’t reveal who would be the keeper-batter in the eleven but said that both Pant and Karthik are in play for the crucial match.

“Between DK and Pant, I had said before the last game as well, Rishabh was the only guy who did not get to play on this tour at all, except the two games we played at Perth (against Western Australia XI). They were unofficial practice games, but since then he hasn’t had a hit.

“He was the only guy who was missing some game-time, so we wanted to give him some time and have some options as well if we want to make changes in the semifinal or final, which we should be able to do that,” said Rohit in the pre-match press conference.

“It will be unfair to just bring a guy out of nowhere and make him play the game, so that was the thought. But again, we have told the guys right from the beginning that everyone needs to be ready for whichever game that they have to play, whether it is the semis, finals, or league games,” added the right-handed opener.

With a school of thought opening that Pant could be effective against England’s off-spin and leg-spin duo of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid in Adelaide, where the square boundaries are short, Rohit admitted that those thoughts had prompted the side to give the left-hander game time against Zimbabwe.

“It was a little tactical as well considering we were not knowing which team we would be playing in the semifinals before that Zimbabwe game. We wanted to just give the left-hander (Pant) an opportunity to counter some of those spinners who bowl in the middle for New Zealand and England.

“That was the thought, and we thought Rishabh was the guy for us to go and give him some time as well. But again, what is going to happen tomorrow, I cannot tell right now, but both of those keepers will be in play for sure.”

Rohit further expressed confidence over Axar Patel coming good for India ahead of the semifinal, citing that the left-arm spin all-rounder is in a good frame of mind. Against the Netherlands, Patel bowled a brilliant spell to take 2/18 in his four overs. But against other teams in the tournament, it has been no wickets for him while conceding 63 runs in five overs.

“To be honest, not really worried, as such, because he hardly got to bowl in this tournament. Except for that game against the Netherlands, he’s not bowled full overs of his quota, only because of the condition that has to offer. We’ve got four seamers who have particularly bowled all of their quotas, which means the spinners will not bowl their overs.

“If you look at the conditions, except Sydney, all the grounds we’ve played had a lot to offer to the seamers, which means we never got an opportunity to bowl Axar in the powerplay, which is his specialty, and honestly have not looked too much into his bowling and gotten worried about his performance because we do understand his quality and the series that we played before coming here bowled exceptionally well.

“Guys can have one bad tournament; it doesn’t mean that he’s out of form or not bowling well or not able to execute plans. I thought the kind of space he’s in for me that is important, and when I talked to him when and hear his thoughts, I pretty much feel that he was in a good space, and that is exactly what we want when you’re about to play a game like that,” concluded Rohit.