India WLWWW
(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Netherlands LLWWL
India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 R Ashwin/ Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Arshdeep Singh
Netherlands, too, are unlikely to tinker but remain concerned by the injury to Roelof van der Merwe. Edwards said a final call on would be taken based on how the left-arm spinner holds up after the training on Wednesday.
Netherlands (possible): 1 Max O’Dowd, 2 Vikramjit Singh. 3 Bas de Leede, 4 Colin Ackermann, 5 Tom Cooper, 6 Scott Edwards (capt & wk), 7 Tim Pringle, 8 Timm van der Gugten, 9 Fred Klaassen 10 Paul van Meekeren, 11 Shariz Ahmed/Roelof van der Merwe
New Zealand blasted 200 in the tournament opener at the SCG on Saturday. So it is fair to expect runs to flow once again. There was some threat of rain, but it looks pretty clear on match eve.
“You know, the discussion we always had was every game in a tournament like this is important. Yes, the first game [was against Pakistan and] we knew the hype around it. We knew it’s always going to be a high intensity and big clash, but having such games done and dusted in the first phase itself, it’s good. Had this game been maybe the third or fourth game, it would really sometimes take that effect on the following games, but having this game out of our group, it’s good.”
India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey on coming back after a high-intensity match
“Yeah, it’s huge. You always dream of playing World Cups, and the SCG is one of the most famous grounds in the world. And then add in you’re playing against arguably one of the best teams in the world, yes, it’s pretty surreal. The boys are looking forward to it.”
Netherlands captain Scott Edwards on how keen his team is to face India.