T20 World Cup: Toss in India-Canada match delayed due to wet outfield; ground inspection set for 8 pm IST
Lauderhill (USA), June 15 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) The toss in the India-Canada Group A match of the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup has been delayed due to a wet outfield at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground on Saturday. An official update added that there is an inspection scheduled for 10.30 AM local time (which is 8 PM IST). As of now, the outfield is still wet, with some soggy spots in and around the 30-yard circle, which has resulted in a delay in the start of the first-ever men’s T20I game between India and Canada. Covers are still firmly on the squares under gloomy skies at the venue, which witnessed some early morning rain and has scattered thunderstorms predicted for the entire day. Sri Lanka-Nepal and Ireland-USA clashes of the World Cup have been abandoned previously at the venue due to rain and a wet outfield. If Saturday’s match is abandoned, then 2007 champions India will finish at the top of the Group ‘A’ points table, with co-hosts USA in the second position. The abandonment will also lead to Canada replacing 2009 champions Pakistan in the third spot. Pakistan, who are already out of the competition, will have to win its last match against Ireland at Lauderhill to finish third in the group. Having already secured a Super Eights spot, India were aiming to potentially give some game time to the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, or Yuzvendra Chahal, as well as see if the talismanic Virat Kohli gets some runs under his beat after recording scores of 4, 1 and 0 in the tournament so far. Squads: India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj. Canada: Saad Bin Zafar (c), Aaron Johnson, Dilon Heyliger, Shreyas Movva (wk), Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Jeremy Gordon, Junaid Siddiqui, Kaleem Sana, Dilpreet Bajwa, Rishiv Joshi, Kanwarpal Tathgur (wk), Pargat Singh, Ravinderpal Singh and Rayyankhan Pathan. —