Cricket is more than a religion in India. The depth of faith in religions in India is immense and so is the general belief in age-old myths, astrology and what not. Yes, science and technology have made rapid advancements but at the end of the day, certain rhetorics are hard to discard, especially for sportspersons.
On Tuesday (March 3), lunar eclipse was observed in the evening and it was initially scheduled to be the first day of training in Mumbai for the Indian team ahead of their semifinal against England on Thursday (March 5). Instead, the training session was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.. According to sources, the decision was made due to the lunar eclipse factor.
In traditional Hindu astrology, lunar eclipse is considered to be an inauspicious event and is said to bring a period of negative energy. Of course, teams at international level worry about preparation the most but everyone has their own set of superstitions. Maybe, the thinking was that if training were to be held on the scheduled time, an unforeseen tragedy might happen to any player during practice.
Regardless of what the exact thought was, the feeling of lunar eclipse being inauspicious is what influenced the decision. The defending champions are expected to train once more on Wednesday (March 4), giving them two solid stints before the big game. Nevertheless, at this stage of the tournament, it is more about being mentally fresh as muscle memory will be in full flow already.
India are expected to be unchanged for this fixture, although there might be some thought about getting Rinku Singh into the mix. That, though, can only happen at the expense of Abhishek Sharma. At this stage, it would be unfair not to back the top-ranked T20I batter in the ICC rankings. Kuldeep Yadav is another option but the team combination and Wankhede surface isn’t in favour of his inclusion.
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