The grind continues

By Paritosh Pramanik

ITS all decked up for the first One-Dayer in six years at VCA Jamtha Stadium.

The stadium looked swanky with newly-fitted bucket seats shining under the bright sun on Tuesday afternoon.

There was a calmness in and arround the stadium but once the shining stars of Indian cricket led by Rohit Sharma decended on the field, the atmosphere became electric.

While captain Rohit, vice-captain Shubhman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja reached the Orange City a day in advance, the other team members reached Nagpur on Monday night and were immediately ‘on national duty’.

The Indian team’s training session started at 12 noon and continued till 4 pm. And it was intense. With changng times, the warm-up drill also have seen a sea of change.

Gone are days when players used to run laps to get fully ready for nets. 

On Tuesday they warmed-up by playing a unique game in which the team was divided into two and they all played with a tennis ball in which they had to pass it to their team-mates who had to hold it by a single hand.

Who won the game? That doesn’t matter because all were charged up for the next session, the catching and fielding. Again players shuffeled in groups with one taking high catches and the others pouncing some parallel ones.

There were fielding drills too at the far end of the ground.

With England deciding not to hold any training session, India used the whole playfield to fine-tune their skills.

They all looked in fine nick whether it collecting high catches or the sharp ones. There was not a single ‘drop’.

Only once Arshseep Singh spilled but it was a difficult one. But still the pacer was not happy with his ‘lethargic’ attempt and even used the ‘F’ word on his own performance.

All this was minutely watched by coach Gautam Gambhir who did not break an eye-lid and stood in the middle, either performing the role of an umpire when the cricketers batted and at some times stood alone to take notes of the happenings in the middle.

SIXES FLY INTO 

THE STANDS

The batters namely Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal showed their brute power to hit the ball into the newly-fitted bucket seats in the stands. Their shots looked so easy but filled with power as the white balls landed into the stands. The ball boys were mere spectators and they had to go into the stands to fetch the ball.