India’s practise match against the Netherlands in
Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday was rained out, thus they will enter the World
Cup without having played a single warm-up ball. The weather did permit the
toss to go place, but their first warm-up game against England in Guwahati on
September 30 was again abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Netherlands will also start the World Cup after
participating in little warm-up play. In Thiruvananthapuram, their match
against Australia was severely impacted by rain, and after Netherlands had
bowled 23 overs and batted for 14.2 overs, there was no way to determine the
outcome.
India trekked across the entire nation for their
warm-ups. After completing their three-match ODI series against Australia at
Rajkot in Gujarat, India’s westernmost state, they travelled to
Thiruvananthapuram in the southern tip of the peninsula before stopping in
Guwahati in the northeast. India will now travel the short distance to Chennai,
where they will play Australia in the tournament opener on October 8, after
travelling more than 6000 kilometres over those two trips.
Netherlands will begin their campaign on October 6
against Pakistan in Hyderabad.
Hosts India enters the World Cup as the favourite
because they have a team that covers the majority of the field, but their top
order is heavy on right-handers and the No. 8 spot is also a problem. They made
one last-minute adjustment to their original lineup, adding R Ashwin to the
injured Axar Patel’s spot to provide themselves an offspin alternative.
The Netherlands qualified for the 10-team World Cup
thanks to an outstanding performance at the qualifier in Zimbabwe, where they
placed second after defeating West Indies in a high-scoring thriller via the
Super Over and then chasing down 278 in 44 overs to beat Scotland on net run
rate.