India defeated Japan by a narrow margin of two runs at the Sano International Cricket Stadium.
In a historic and extraordinarily tense encounter on Tuesday (September 22), the India cricket team escaped a massive upset to beat Japan by just two runs in a rain-curtailed one-off T20I match at the Sano International Cricket Stadium.
A delayed start due to a wet outfield forced the officials to reduce the match to a rapid five-overs-a-side shootout.
Opting to bat first on a turning wicket, India managed to post 32/4 in their 5 overs with only skipper Shreyas Iyer (16 off 12 balls) managing to reach double figures. Charlie Hara-Hinze returned with the impressive bowling figures of 2-0-17-2 for Japan, dismissing Abhishek Sharma (0) and Iyer.
In reply, the hosts gave the reigning T20 World Champions a major scare but eventually fell a couple short of the target. The Men in Blue restricted Japan to 30/3 as Washington Sundar claimed 2/13 for India.
Reflecting on the game, former opener Wasim Jaffer highlighted the struggles of Indian batters on difficult wickets lately and called for a change in approach and mindset.
"Yes, in our batting, there is a blemish that when there is a wicket that is not flat, our batters get stuck. We also had a problem in England. When there is a little difficulty, when the ball seams a little, or the spin is very less, this match felt like a spin wicket. But initially, if there is movement, then our batters get in trouble. Maybe they want to play with the same strike rate, they want to play with the same aggression. You have to temper your game and not think only beyond 200. We have to rethink what scores to keep in mind on such wickets and what approach to take," Jaffer said in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
Jaffer expressed immense relief that the Shreyas Iyer-led side avoided a massive upset and embarrassment.
"I was actually surprised. It's good that we won. Otherwise, it would have been a big embarrassment. It would have been a big news that we were playing for the first time in Japan and we lost. I heard it was a difficult wicket. Even though we won by only 2 runs, it felt like we saved our reputation," he added.
In the same video, Jaffer voiced his concerns about India's strategy of preparing extreme, spin-friendly pitches for home Test matches.
He noted that preparing rank turners has cost India against teams like New Zealand and South Africa while also highlighting that the current generation of Indian batters lacks the same technical proficiency against high-quality spin as their predecessors.
"I think first of all, we should avoid giving rank turners. Because they didn't give us good results. Whether it was against New Zealand or South Africa. We made rank turners against them but it cost us in turn. So I think we should play on good wickets, where, from the third day, the ball starts spinning. I think we should make that kind of pitch. Otherwise, we put a lot of pressure on our batters, and we also bring their bowlers into the game. If the ball is spinning from the first day, then I think we put pressure on ourselves. And our batters, we don't have the same technique as the previous batters did. Making a safer wicket is better," he remarked.
Jaffer further pointed out that current cricketers spend the vast majority of their year playing limited-overs matches, leaving very little time to prepare or practice with the traditional red ball used in first-class and Test cricket.
"It's a bit of a problem because these days, batters don't practice much with the red-ball. There are a lot of matches in a year, and they play with white-ball, so they cannot give enough time to red-ball. And there are three different formats. Indian cricketers, who play in all three formats, they have very little time," he stated.
India are set to host Australia in a five-match Test series early next year. It remains to be seen what sort of wickets will be served for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.