The Indian cricket team will get to play only a sole warm-up game ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, against Bangladesh at the newly built modular stadium at Nassau County in New York. The Men in Blue are reportedly set to arrive in three batches in the United States, one each on May 25 and 26 and the remaining one with the players who would play in the final of the ongoing season of the IPL, if any.
As per an ESPNCricinfo report, the India vs Bangladesh clash on June 1 could be the first big game at the newly built stadium which was launched on Tuesday, May 15 among several stars including Usain Bolt, Shoaib Malik, Corey Anderson and Liam Plunkett. The modular stadium houses a 34,000 capacity and has drop-in pitches which were manufactured in Florida and were transported by road. The ICC is set to conduct test events, a few exhibition matches to ensure that the stadium is ready for the World Cup games, come June 1.
New York is set to host eight matches in the first round out of 16 in the United States while Dallas and Florida will host four each. India will play three of their four encounters in the first round in New York and the remaining one against Canada in Florida.
“We’ve turned what was park land and an informal cricket ground into what you’ll agree looks like a world-class cricket stadium that you might find anywhere,” Chris Tetley, ICC’s head of events, said in a media interaction on Tuesday.
The warm-up matches for every team will be going to differ. With the travelling time being a huge factor, New Zealand have altogether given up on the idea of playing a warm-up match as the head coach Gary Stead mentioned that getting the whole squad to the Caribbean and the USA together is a task and hence has decided to bank on the players’ recent experiences in the IPL, a few of the squad members were involved in the five-match T20 series against Pakistan and some of them who have played in the CPL including Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips in particular.
England and Pakistan will be involved in a four-match T20 series that runs up to May 30 and hence those two sides too will be going into the T20 World Cup without any warm-up games. The tournament kicks off on June 1 (6 AM IST on June 2) with the United States taking on Canada in a clash of neighbours in Dallas.