England have pledged to go into Thursday’s T20 World Cup semi-final against India with no fear, with Sam Curran describing the fixture as “a dream” and “a brilliant opportunity” about which they are feeling “hugely confident”.
On the face of it the challenge England face is daunting. Though they won all three games in the Super 8 stage to ease into the semi-finals those matches were played in Sri Lanka, where they now have a 100% record in six outings this year. They have since returned to Mumbai, where they were so nearly beaten by Nepal in their tournament opener and then actually beaten by West Indies, and where they can expect nothing but hostility from a sold-out crowd of 33,000.
Though scoring rates here in this tournament have been relatively modest, across the last three seasons of the Indian Premier League the Wankhede has been the competition’s highest-scoring ground, with an average of 9.89 runs scored per over. India’s team is packed with players who have extensive experience here including their captain, Suryakumar Yadav, the highest scorer on the ground in that time with 888 runs in 20 innings at the extraordinary average of 63.42, and his Mumbai Indians teammate Jasprit Bumrah, who with 23 wickets at 11.52 and an economy of 5.61 does not so much stand out from other bowlers as exist in a different category entirely of his own. England played India here as recently as last February: the opener Abhishek Sharma scored a ludicrous 135 off 54, England were bowled out in just over 10 overs and the winning margin was 150, making it the worst T20 defeat in England’s history.
But despite all of this, and the fact England are yet to produce a truly authoritative display in this tournament, their coach-and-captain combo of Brendon McCullum and Harry Brook have managed to locate bright sides to look on, such as redefining some of their poor performances as morale-boosting evidence that they can, in Curran’s words, “win games from scenarios that we probably shouldn’t”.
“Baz and Brooky are very positive people and they’re just keeping the group nice and calm,” Curran said. “These games are what we dream of. It’s such a cool experience. It’s kind of, how exciting to play India in the semi-final. Everybody knows how we’re going to play them. They know how we’re going to attack them.”
The game will be played on the same Wankhede pitch – No 7 – that was used when England played West Indies, a game in which spinners thrived and batters largely didn’t. Unsurprisingly the same was true when it was used again the following day for Nepal’s defeat by Italy. But three weeks have passed since then, and having had a first look during Tuesday’s training session England are expecting it to behave very differently now.
“I’d be very surprised if it’s a low-scoring, turning pitch,” Curran said. “Sri Lanka suited the spinners a lot more, so I took a back seat a little bit with the ball. I presume I’ll be involved a lot more with the ball, and all our seamers will be a bit more involved. I’m excited for that challenge. It’s normally a pretty good wicket and it’s a small ground so I’d expect a really high-scoring game. India are a quality side but we’ve played a lot of cricket here and we’re not fearing anything.”
England silenced a large and fervent crowd during their victory over Sri Lanka in Pallekele, and their first task on Thursday will again be to gain the upper hand and quieten the throng.
“Flying to Mumbai you think about your dreams as a kid, and it’d probably be taking on India in India,” Curran said. “It’s such an amazing experience. It will be incredibly loud and you’ve got to look at that as an exciting opportunity. If the crowd are silent, England are probably going to be doing well. That’s our positive way of looking at it. The positive for us is we’ve played so much cricket in India as players and you just get so used to it you can block it out.
“It’s going to be a very loud and cool occasion. This is what the last four or five weeks have been building for and hopefully we can take one more step. We’re hugely confident. There’s going to be no secrets in terms of what each team will throw at each other, it’s just on the night who handles the occasion and adapts to the conditions the quickest. It’s one of those nights where you go out and give it everything and hope that it’s enough.”
