AHMEDABAD: India skipper Rohit Sharma's facial expressions give plenty away. If he doesn't like a question asked to him during a press conference, he reacts as if a bad joke has been cracked. A loaded question on him getting teary-eyed whenever the National anthem is played, meant to extract a jingoistic response from him just because India's opponents on Saturday are Pakistan, evoked such a reaction on the eve of India's big-ticket World Cup encounter against the 1992 World Champions at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Friday.
As captain, Rohit has mastered the art of not saying much, but meaning a lot. When asked if opener Shubman Gill, affected by dengue and the resultant weakness it causes, is fit to play at a venue where his record is Bradmanesque, on Saturday, the skipper said, "99% he is available. We will see tomorrow."
If anyone had any doubts over the remaining one per cent, they were answered by Gill playing football enthusiastically during training.
Rohit chose to be vague also about the possibility of India fielding three spinners. "I don't know. I still haven't looked at the pitch yet. (He was seen having one after training and he had a word with the ground staff too), but we are ready for whatever combination we want to play. That's the challenge going forward for us as a team. If there is a change or two we need to make, we will be ready with that. And the guys have been informed very well in advance about these changes. If the requirement is there for us to play three spinners, we will play three spinners."
One of the reasons why India have been successful across conditions and across formats is the ability of the team to adapt. The Narendra Modi Stadium is a venue which has a square on which both red and black soil pitches can be prepared. Saturday's game will be on a black soil pitch, which will be slow and aid spin, but Rohit seemed unfussed about ground conditions. "That's the good thing about this team. We come here knowing that this is the wicket. I don't decide what wicket we need. Whether it's a spinning pitch, seaming track, flat pitch, we've got the guys who can do the job for us."
It would be interesting to dig out Rohit's academic record in school and check out how he fared in history. Because he clearly doesn't seem interested in the past. Asked if India's 7-0 record will have any bearing on Saturday's match and if India start with a psychological advantage, he said, "I am not a person who looks into those stats. You want to play good cricket on that day to win."
