Abu Dhabi: Oman wicketkeeper-batter Vinayak Shukla lauded the quality of the Indian team while highlighting Oman’s focus on hard work, learning from past matches, and putting up a strong performance.
India, already through to the Super Four stage, will face Oman—who are yet to register a win—in a dead-rubber at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, on Friday.
“We have immense respect for India and the standard of cricket they bring. For us, it’s about focusing on our preparation, learning from our previous games, and playing our best cricket,” Shukla said during the pre-match press conference.
Shukla added that Oman’s aim in the final group match is to showcase quality cricket and build on the glimpses of strong play they’ve shown so far. “This is our last group game, with two teams already qualified. Our goal is to display good cricket, improve on our weaknesses, and give our fans an exciting match,” he said.
He also noted that the team is working on strengthening their top and middle-order batting, having struggled with early wickets in the powerplay in their last two games.
Earlier in the tournament, India defeated the UAE by nine wickets and Pakistan by seven, while Oman lost both their matches against Pakistan and the UAE.
For Oman, this match represents their final outing against a Full Member side before hosting the T20 World Cup Asia & East-Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier next month.
Squads:
India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (w), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Jitesh Sharma, Rinku Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana
Oman: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh (c), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla (w), Wasim Ali, Hassnain Shah, Shah Faisal, Jiten Ramanandi, Aryan Bisht, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, Mohammad Nadeem, Sufyan Mehmood, Karan Sonavale, Ashish Odedara, Mohammad Imran, Zikria Islam, Nadeem Khan, Sufyan Yousaf
