Dark heavy clouds hover over NY's Nassau County ahead of India's World Cup opener

Ahead of Indias T20 World Cup 2024 opener against Ireland in New York cloudy weather is prevailing in Nassau County indicating that rain could play a spoilsport in the upcoming fixtureIndia the inaugural T20 World Cup champions from 2007 will be kickstarting their campaign against Ireland in their Group A clash The Men in Blue will be hoping to win the whole tournament and secure their first International Cricket Council ICC trophy since their 2013 ICC Champions Trophy winAhead of the game dark clouds were visible in the Nassau County region With the EnglandScotland game already washed out due to rain yesterday in Barbados fans will be hoping that the rain gods stay away from Team Indias highlyanticipated campaign openerIndian skipper Rohit Sharma reflected on his bond with head coach Rahul Dravid for who this tournament will be last as the head coach ahead of his teams game in a prematch press conference on TuesdayMy equation with Rahul Dravid is very good He is my first captain I played under him He is such a big role model for all of us I have seen him play when I was just coming into the team He has shown a lot of determination in his career taking us out of difficult situations I try to convince him to continue as a coach I will not be able to see him go It has been fruitful working with him I enjoyed every bit of it he saidAlso ReadLok Sabha elections 2024 Cricketrsquos political pitchOn playing in almost alien conditions in the USA Rohit said that conditions are unknown to all the teams and the team will be focusing on what it needs to do rather than their opponentThe conditions are quite unknown for a lot of teams That is the same for all You just have to play good cricket We are not going to look into the opposition that we are playing The important thing for us is what we are going to do with the bat ball and field You do look into their strengths weakness and team composition but that is it said RohitOn the slow surface of the Nassau County Stadium where India will be playing their campaign opener and where Sri Lanka and South Africa played a lowscoring match on Monday Rohit said that he got to know how the pitch was playing through his teammates and the support staffThere is uncertainty about the pitches we will play on the outfield Maybe the pitch we play on would be a good one It is about adapting quickly We know what to do as a batting and bowling group on different surfaces We will keep an eye on all these aspects and decide what is best combination for us we have got seamers spinners etc he addedAhead of his sides clash against India in the T20 World Cup 2024 Ireland head coach Heinrich Malan showered praise on the opponents and said that the Men in Blues are an experienced sideSpeaking at the prematch press conference Malan said that they will look to find a few areas in the Indian side that they can exploitWe have really had a nice opportunity to prepare and try and control some areas that we feel like we can control and part of that is making sure we do our preparation and our planning India is an experienced side which means theres a lot of dots to connect and a lot of information out there So hopefully we can look to find a couple of areas we can try and exploit Malan was quoted by ICC as sayingHe added that they will try to play consistent and good cricket in the T20 World Cup 2024Its not necessarily just about the World Cup or playing against India or any one of the top sides you know we try and put a process in place and a system and a structure in place that we can play consistent good cricket Hopefully if we do follow the process and weve shown over a period that we can play a good brand of cricket and if we do that well over time like Ive said weve shown then you know we can beat the top sides and then it becomes you know part of what we do as opposed to it happening every now and again he addedWith agency inputs