IND vs IRE: "This isn't IPL, only batsmen with technique.."- Rohit Sharma's men warned massively by Mohammad Kaif

Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif has made a huge prediction about the drop-in pitch in New York after seeing India beat Bangladesh last night. 

The Asian giants had met each other yesterday in what was the first-ever cricket game at the Nassau County International Stadium. This is the venue wherein Rohit Sharma's team India will play 3 out of their 4 Group A games at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, including the high-voltage clash against Pakistan. 

There was a lot of talk about the conditions and the behavior of the surface at the New York Stadium which has been built from absolute scratch. 3 months back, the venue was filled with snow and didn't have any facilities around. But fast forward to June, the Nassau County Stadium looks magnificent with the drop-in pitch playing a bit slow, as seen yesterday. 

What did Mohammad Kaif say about the Nassau Stadium's surface? 

Mohammad Kaif, who is a part of Star Sports' Hindi commentary team for the T20 World Cup 2024, gave his honest views on the pitch in New York. As it was seen yesterday, the surface had a sluggish behavior and the batters didn't really know what to expect. The surface was certainly favorable for the bowlers, especially the spinners. 

In such a case batting becomes a very difficult job. At least in New York, it has been confirmed that we are not going to witness fringe 200+ scores that were scored by teams during the IPL 2024.

In the recently concluded edition, several teams even crossed the 250-run mark. But Mohammad Kaif, who commentated on the entire game, feels that it won't be the case in this T20 World Cup in the USA. Nassau County Stadium has a spongy and uneven bounce, it is slow, it favors seam movement, and also has big boundary fences. 

All of these things are not that suitable for batting with bowlers seemingly having an advantage in the venue. Therefore, Mohammad Kaif claimed that it won't be easy for Indian batters to score sixes and fours like they had during the 2024 IPL season. 

Mohammad Kaif believes that batters, who have good technique and play according to the merit of the ball, are going to find success. It means that the sloggers will not be able to score many runs in New York and that is not going to be like this year's IPL. 

"If pitches play the same in New York, batting will be tough. Spongy bounce, slow and big outfield, movement of the ball - only batsmen with technique will score runs here. This is definitely not IPL." - Mohammad Kaif wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya star with the bat as the bowlers maintained great economy 

Contrary to Mohammad Kaif's point, the only two batters who scored runs on the NY pitch last night were Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya. The wicket-keeper batsman and the Vice-captain do not have the best of techniques but they relied on the basics and their explosiveness in the wrist.

Pant's 53 off 32 and Pandya's 40 off 23 had helped India post 183 as the target. In the second innings, the bowlers maintained an economy rate of less than 10 except Pandya with the Indians winning by 60 runs.