India’s T20 challenges: Cold Dharamshala, hot South Africa

Team India training session

Never before has a match been played in the searing cold of a December evening but, still, runs can be expected to be plundered at this stadium that is 1,317m above sea level

The build-up to the third T20I between India and South Africa on Sunday does not start in Dharamshala. Instead, it begins about 50 km away at the bottom of Kangra, before the wide highways make way for the narrow roads that traverse the hillside, where several billboards, big and small, welcome the cricket-mad tourists to the “most beautiful stadium in the world”.

While it is the life-sized face of Anurag Thakur, former BCCI president, sports minister and BJP MP, that adorns the promotional posters, the travelling fans will hope to have stills of gleaming India team players on the postcards from this picture-perfect cricket ground. The team itself will be hoping to put down the 51-run mauling from the visitors in Mullanpur on Thursday as nothing more than an aberration.

To do so, though, they will have to counter the unique conditions that will be thrown at them in the shivering cold weather, as the snow-capped peaks of the Dhauladhar mountain range stare down upon them. Questions are being asked about the form of some of India’s top batters, the captain Suryakumar Yadav, and vice-captain Shubman Gill in particular, but middle-order enforcer Tilak Varma has been in form, and despite coming from the sultry heat of Hyderabad, he believes that taming the cold weather should not be a tough task for a champion team. “At this level, there can be no excuses,” he insisted at the pre-match press conference on Saturday.

South Africa seems to be thriving, too. Unlike India, they chose rest and relaxation – perhaps also a little sightseeing – over training on the eve of the game. The serenity of the hills and the bustle among the spiritually inclined in nearby McLeodganj is tough to resist for most teams travelling to these parts. “I have had to cancel a meeting today because some of the players were still on their hike in the mountains,” Proteas coach Shukri Conrad said.

He added that they may not be used to the cold but are not overly concerned, nor do they wish for an earlier afternoon game. “Coming to a wonderful place like this is all part of the experience of playing in India,” he said.

And dealing with uncontrollables has been a theme of the white-ball leg of South Africa’s all-format tour. The dew, which can be expected as temperatures fall in North India, ravaged the ODI series, giving an undue advantage to the chasing side. It has done so in the T20s so far, too, but rather than making the toss crucial, it has made life difficult for bowlers on both sides.

Tilak insisted that given that the dew comes in at the very start for evening games, it nullifies its effects. Conrad, who said that his bowling side had been preparing for playing against dew by training with wet balls ever since the conclusion of the first ODI, felt that it was not enough of an excuse.

The high altitude will likely make matters worse for bowlers. With this stadium being 1,317m above sea level, the air is far less dense, and that helps carry mistimed shots that would normally be caught in the deep just a few extra metres and take them past the boundary ropes.

Past precedents are hard to judge since all nine of the 10 previous T20Is here (most of them in the 2016 World Cup) have been played in February-March; the other one in October. Never before has a match been played in the searing cold of a December evening. But still, runs can be expected to be plundered. Punjab Kings won both their games here in the IPL this year with a 240+ run first-innings total. “The groundsmen here will tell you that this is an excellent wicket. I think we are expecting a lot of runs,” Conrad said.

No wonder, then, that Jasprit Bumrah was seen having a light session; Arshdeep Singh did not turn up at all. Even as Bumrah bowled, the atmosphere was jovial, almost as if to suggest that it does not quite matter how hard he trains here. He was tonked for four sixes for the first time in a T20I innings in Mullanpur; maybe it has numbed him to some of the pain.

The rest of the team, especially the batting, did have an intense session, unusual for the eve of a game. It may suggest how keen they are to put things right. Eight games away from a home World Cup, the unnecessary pressure of falling behind in a home series will be unwanted among a playing group that has been in such good form that they have won 22 of their last 27 games. A banana skin awaits, and falls sting so much more in the cold that India will be hoping to side-step it without doubt.