ICC U19 Cricket WC

Anmolpreet Singh revels in high-pressure opportunities - Cricbuzz.com

A World Cup at the youth level serves as an excellent yardstick. While providing ample opportunities to the cricketers coming up through the ranks is at the top of the agenda, it also offers a massive stage on which their ability and temperament can be judged in order to streamline their graduation to the next level.

Consistent performances in domestic tournaments always hold great value, but the ability to shine in a different and tougher environment against players of similar skill level from all over the globe is bound to enhance reputation. However, on a platform so grand, players' margin for error is negligible and each opportunity is worth its weight in gold.

For Anmolpreet Singh, the chance to prove his worth couldn't have come at a better time. After warming the bench all through the group stage, he was thrown in the mix for India's quarterfinal fixture against Namibia and the semifinal against Sri Lanka, in place of Ricky Bhui. For Ishan Kishan and Rahul Dravid to bring Anmolpreet in for an out-of-sorts but experienced top-order campaigner speaks volumes about the Patiala lad's abilities.

"You can trust each of the 15 members we have. We know they can perform when the team needs. We have seen Anmol's batting, and he performs in matches even if situation is bad. He also bowls. We always think about the team, and he has proved himself," Kishan said in the press conference after Anmolpreet's 72 helped India reached the final.

At the junior level, players are expected to be utility cricketers. That Anmolpreet can also bowl right-arm off break may have sealed the deal for him. Anmolpreet's resourceful 42-ball 41 and bowling figures of 3 for 27 in seven overs against Namibia in the quarterfinal made it easy for the captain and coach duo to persist with him ahead of Bhui, who has managed scores of 39, 1 and 7.

"What is there to handle as a captain. One player goes one player comes. It's a part and parcel of the game. Such things happen. Ricky didn't play, Anmol played. He is a good player. I didn't have to put any extra effort on that,"Ishan said about the dealing with Anmolpreet's inclusion.

For his part, Anmolpreet too seems undeterred by all that has transpired in the tournament so far. "Everyone was delivering as per the team's requirement, so I did not get a chance. After that, when Ricky did not score, sir (Dravid) gave me chance and I did well," he said.

At No. 3, Anmolpreet's level-headed and textbook approach to batting adds a much-needed variation to India's aggression-heavy top-order of Kishan, Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan. On Tuesday (February 9), Anmolpreet essayed the role of a perfect one-down batman, rotating strike in company of Sarfaraz and then taking the onus of improving the scoring rate when Washington Sundar joined him in the middle.

"I just focussed on working on my basics and playing as per the situation. The wicket was tough, and the ball was doing a bit. So, my discussion with Sarfaraz was to rotate the strike," he said, explaining his thought process.

Anmolpreet's penchant for runs comes across in his four-word batting philosophy - Lamba leke jaana hai (Need to take it long). Ask him about the mindset while he and Sarafaz Khan went about steadying India's ship, and he offers this mantra. Talk about his approach to a brilliant triple century in last year's Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, where he scored 1,154 runs in 2014-15, and the response is the same. It is perhaps this mentality that helped him play big knocks and win win the BCCI award for the Under-19 cricketer of the year.

Born in Patiala, Anmolpreet did not have to go too far to find an inspiration to take to sports. "My father (Satvinder Singh) is a sports person. I belong from sports family. He represented India from 1982-2000 in handball and was captain for five-six years. He is an inspector in the Sports Department in Punjab," he gushed.

From following his cousins to the ground and watching them play college matches to pulling on an India jersey for the Under-19 side and gearing up to play in a World Cup final, Anmolpreet has come a very long way. All of 17, however, his journey has merely begun. He, more than anyone else will know, abhi aur lamba leke jaana hai.

India unfussed by failure on fast pitch

The bounce and pace of the Pune track tested India and Sri Lanka but the general consensus after the match was on staying calm and maintaining a simple game

Nothing in the practice sessions on the eve of the match had suggested that a batting allrounder like Dasun Shanaka could hurt India so much with the ball © BCCI

The short duration of Twenty20 cricket makes it so high-strung that a little deviation from ideal batting conditions breaks the match. You know the pitch is doing something, you know you have to bat with caution, but you also know every dot ball is making it easier for the opposition. The time that you have to judge a par total on a pitch is little, but then again you can't be sure the pitch won't improve for batting with time. So it was that in the unlikeliest of places, at a ground that can justifiably claim to have the flattest pitch in India, former Maharashtra tearaway Pandurang Salgaoncar, the head groundsman in Pune, laid out a rare fast and bouncy pitch that tested the fabric of T20 cricket. The general consensus from the teams after a low-scoring, one-sided game is: these are rare conditions that won't be repeated anytime soon, so let's not complicate our games too much.

The new ball seamed, and even when the ball became older it flew through to the keeper. The sponginess of the bounce suggested excess moisture in the pitch, by Twenty20 standards. A perfect storm was created when two early mis-hits went to hand. A maiden was bowled. Geniuses such as Michael Hussey assess pitches perfectly at such times, but even they have to run the risk of looking silly if they go for 140 and the opposition has two good early overs and stroll through the chase.

India tried to be bullish at the start, but with every ball that went they felt the need to play the big shot. India's captain MS Dhoni said they knew the pitch was different and that they needed to play differently, but he also said it is not as if you can consolidate for five to seven overs in T20 cricket. "We keep sending these messages [with reassessed par scores]," he said. "But the format is so short… if you see the 50-over format and you lose early wickets you say let's have a partnership. That partnership is five overs, seven overs. In this format it is five balls, seven balls, eight balls."

The perfect T20 batsman somehow manages to score a run a ball without taking undue risks on these pitches, and then plays the odd big hit. India might have erred on the side of a few big shots too many, but their opponents weren't left surprised either. "It's T20, so obviously one batsman has to take a calculated risk," Sachithra Senanayake said. "But our bowlers did a great job, especially the fast bowlers. It's so hard to play big shots on that wicket, so our bowlers did a great job."

Dhoni conceded they did need a partnership, but wasn't too harsh on his batsmen. "If you talk about this wicket, definitely one partnership was important," he said. "Whenever we had a bit of a partnership, when we went to play a big shot… luck is also a bit of a factor. When we played the big shots, one or two catches got dropped, but when you play the big shot [and mis-hit it] even if you don't get out you realise this is a different wicket and you need to bat differently. Also we are coming from a series where we have scored a lot of runs, and also we have scored so many runs in Australia so at times it feels like, 'Whatever it is, it is India's wicket after all [we can bat on this].'"

This kind of a T20 match happens every once in a while, but a majority of them are played on flatter surfaces that bow to the batsmen's demands. Nothing from any practice session on the eve of the match suggested the teams were even expecting the batsmen to be tested by the pitch. As it happened, a man with two wickets in 26 matches before this wrecked India. He even admitted he is a batting allrounder. The general attitude in the Indian camp is to ask the fans to not look for the kind of nuance you would in 50-overs cricket. The batsmen will just keep calm and play the next big shot. 

Keywords : ICC Under 19 World Cup 2016, India U19, Sri Lanka U19, India U19 vs Sri Lanka U19, 1st Semi-Final