Abu Dhabi [UAE], September 18 : Oman wicketkeeper/batter Vinayak Shukla expressed respect for the Indian team's quality, emphasising the team's focus on hard work, learning from past matches, and playing a good game against them.
India, already qualified for the Super Four stage of the tournament, will take on Oman, who is yet to win a game, in a dead-rubber at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, on Friday.
"We have a lot of respect for India as a team and the quality of cricket they bring. For us, it's about focusing on our hard work and learning from our previous matches. We're looking forward to playing a good match," Vinayak Shukla said in the pre-match press conference.
Shukla stated that their goal in the final group game against India is to showcase good cricket, having already shown glimpses of quality play. They aim to improve on their shortcomings and entertain their fans.
"This will be our final group game, with two teams already qualified. Our goal now is to showcase good cricket. We've shown glimpses of quality cricket, but we're working on ironing out our shortcomings. We want to give our fans an exciting match," Shukla said.
"We're focusing on improving our top and middle order batting, as we've struggled with losing wickets in the powerplay in our last two matches," he added.
India defeated the UAE by nine wickets in the first match and Pakistan by seven wickets in the second. Oman lost both their fixtures against Pakistan and the UAE.
For Oman, this is their last match against a Full Member team before they host a tournament of serious consequence next month - the T20 World Cup Asia & East-Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier.
Squads:
Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson(w), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jitesh Sharma, Rinku Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana
Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh(c), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla(w), Wasim Ali, Hassnain Shah, Shah Faisal, Jiten Ramanandi, Aryan Bisht, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, Mohammad Nadeem, Sufyan Mehmood, Karan Sonavale, Ashish Odedara, Mohammad Imran, Zikria Islam, Nadeem Khan, Sufyan Yousaf.