Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 28 : Ahead of his side's must-win ICC T20 World Cup clash against the West Indies, India assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate vowed to fight "fire with fire" during this mouth-watering clash and cautioned against "over-focusing" on pace-off deliveries, which have proven to be a huge challenge for Men in Blue in this tournament.
Team India will be taking on West Indies in a virtual knockout clash at Eden Gardens for the second-semifinal spot in the T20 World Cup from their Super Eight group. South Africa has already qualified for the semifinals from their group. Either West Indies or India will get to play two-time champions England in a high-octane clash in front of a passionate Mumbai crowd at Wankhede Stadium.
However, Men in Blue will have to at their best against pace-off deliveries and off-spinners, two types of bowling that have troubled them throughout this tournament, not letting them reach the dizzying, massive 220-250-plus scores everyone expected from the defending champions. Left-handers Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma's struggles up the order against off-spin, pace off deliveries did not let India fire at their best till the clash against South Africa, which ended in a 76-run humiliation at Ahmedabad, pushing their net-run-rate in negatives. But a wounded Team India responded back with a strong 256/4 against Zimbabwe at Chennai, with Sanju Samson and a return-to-form fifty from Abhishek Sharma fifty serving as a foundation.
Speaking during the pre-match presser, Ryan said that his team are full of "professionals who leave for these moments" and are not bothered that the T20I format comes so naturally to West Indies, the two-time T20 WC champions coached by their former captain Daren Sammy.
"The team is very prepared. These are professionals who live for these moments. It was a quick turnaround from the disappointment of South Africa. I thought the guys regrouped really well in the prep in Chennai for those couple of days. We have just been through our plans in the team meeting, and just a little bit of fine-tuning now, just to get used to the surface, have a look around and make sure we focus on ourselves and put our best foot forward tomorrow in a crucial game," he said.
"I do not think that bothers at all what comes naturally to them (on WI being natural T20 players). I think the challenge is that they are a very good T20 side. They possess power as good as any of the best teams in the world. And I guess what you know about the West Indies when they come to a T20 competition, they give absolutely everything. This is their moment, their big moment in their calendar, as I said, it is a challenge. We are going to fight fire with fire tomorrow, and I am expecting a really good game out there," he added.
Ryan was questioned about how many discussions had taken place within the team regarding the pace off delivery challenge posed by the opposition so far, a tactic which works really well at Kolkata's Eden Gardens. India has so far lost 16 wickets to such a type of bowling. The assistant coach emphasised the need not to "over focus" on a challenge and to avoid making a big deal out of it.
"Any challenge you face, you do not want to over-focus it and make it too much of a bigger deal. It will be maybe half or 40 per cent of the balls where pace is taken off. So it certainly is a challenge and something we have spoken about, and something the guys will go out and practice now. But you also need to rely on intuition and your gut feeling. As I said, if you focus too much on one thing, your mind gets clogged up. So we want the players just to play what they see in front of them, but obviously to be aware and pre-program how they want to go about certain threats like the different slower balls that the West India's bowlers bowl and obviously the different deliveries that (Gudakesh) Motie and Akeal (Hosein) can bowl themselves but again bring the focus back to their skills, what our guys do really well and just make sure you navigate your way through the challenges that come," he signed off.
Squads:

India Squad: Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav

West Indies Squad: Brandon King, Shai Hope(w/c), Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Roston Chase, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Matthew Forde, Gudakesh Motie, Shamar Joseph, Johnson Charles, Akeal Hosein, Jayden Seales, Quentin Sampson.