A six-day conditioning camp for the Asia Cup-bound India team concluded in Alur, Bengaluru on August 29. Aadya Sharma was at the venue to watch Rohit Sharma & Co fine-tune their skills ahead of their departure to Sri Lanka.
This August has been awfully hot for Bengaluru, at least for those used to the city’s perennially cloudy, rain-peeking weather. On Tuesday, the sun beat down alright, but could not prevent onlookers from peering through gates, walls and everything between to catch a glimpse of India’s Asia Cup troupe going through the final practice session of their ongoing camp.
The first five days were, in a way, closed-door. Among media, only the host broadcaster was allowed inside. Yet, updates came by through amateur footage from fans on the other side of the Karnataka State Cricket Association facility, about 25 kilometres from the city centre, as the 17-member squad and several net bowlers went through their drills in Alur.
There is considerable interest around the Asia Cup, drummed up further by the broadcasters, but the six-nation tournament is not the protagonist of all the attention. The Asia Cup is a dress rehearsal of sorts for the World Cup that begins in just over a month’s time, and is still the ultimate prize in a cricketing world stuffed with T20s.
The final day: How it began
On Tuesday, the Indian team demarcated their area of practice across three nets in one of the three ‘Oval’ grounds in Alur. The throwdown experts queued up at the one on the extreme left. The quicks – both from the first squad and the practice bowlers – bowled at the one next to it. And the a jamboree of slow bowlers occupied the third.
Batters came in batches and switched through the three nets for a decent enough hit from all three kinds of offerings. Aerial hits were commonplace, especially against spinners, especially off the bat of Shreyas Iyer.
The session began with the first-choice opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. Rohit happily slog swept and used his feet against spin, while Gill solidly dealt with the quicks. Virat Kohli, padded up, stood behind “umpire” Rahul Dravid, as the two closely followed each move in the centre net. Ravindra Jadeja followed.
In the foreground, Tilak Varma and Ishan Kishan happily indulged in fielding drills, laughing and chatting like school buddies. “Six ho gaya (it’s a six)”, teased Tilak, when one of Kishan’s boundary-catching attempts was probably negated by his shoe sticking out of the “boundary” markers. Tilak’s insistence suggested that they were probably keeping a friendly score.
The keeper debate
Kishan, one of three wicketkeepers in the squad, fielded through the day. Later, KL Rahul was confirmed to be out for two games. As a result, Sanju Samson did most of the keeping for the day – that too mostly light drills by the side of the nets. Rahul did not keep on the last day, which indicates that he might be ‘batting fit’, but not ‘keeping fit’.
Kishan, however, had kept for long periods during match simulations earlier in the camp, and had batted in pairs with Jadeja and Hardik Pandya at different points, suggesting that a middle-order role could materialise for him.
Day 5 LIVE: Team India's BLR Camp Ft. Virat, Gill, Dravid | Asia Cup https://t.co/ahsTJoogNK
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) August 29, 2023
Rohit and Gill were followed by Kohli, Rahul and Iyer, all significantly different in their approach. Rahul eased in, not particularly looking for the big hits; Kohli was calculated and compact, using the depths of the crease; and Iyer was brutal against the spinners, comfortably taking the aerial route.
The parked ambulance van was in danger of losing a window at least thrice. The reporters, peering from under the shade and often yelling “watch out!” to one another, grimaced when the projectile carried the ball behind the sight screen in the direction of their parked cars.
Apart from the main trio of Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, the spinner’s union, though promising, wasn’t particularly world-class: among those feeding the batters were Hrithik Shokeen, Mayank Markande, R Sai Kishore, Manav Suthar and others, joined later by Tilak. Varun Chakravarthy, not too long ago India’s mystery weapon in T20Is, also made an appearance.
The quicks: Fast and furious
The quicks had more first-team names: Mohammed Shami thundered in, along with the Ireland-returning Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna, both of whom joined the camp just a day ago.
The tall Prasidh – the human version of a “sidearm” – got the ball to lift, as did Bumrah, in more discreet fashion. Along with them was Umran Malik, not in the squad but pushing the average speed of the camp up.
Before moving to the spinners, Kohli negotiated Bumrah, who surprised Iyer with a short-pitched delivery later. Unlike Iyer’s effortless aerial power, Kohli played the spinners more along the ground, using his area and indulging in a few reverse sweeps too.
Pandya and the rest of the middle order followed them, the sequence giving a hint or two about what could be the pecking order. Suryakumar Yadav, still not an ODI regular, batted with the lower-middle order as the main set of bowlers stepped away.
Pandya went down the ground against spin, but the power was not reminiscent of his pre-injury days. Samson freed his arms too, as did Axar and the rest of the lower order, as Tilak and Kishan joined in. Kishan waltzed around like he does, hitting some and missing some. On one occasion, the bat flew off his gloves and very nearly flattened Axar in the adjoining net.
Once done with his nets, Kohli had a long chat with Bumrah and a couple of others before proceeding to help out Gill with catches, pads still on. Through the day, he had been the big brother to Gill, first keenly watching him bat, then having a long chat with him, and finally helping him out with fielding.
He then packed his bag, walked off, followed in phases by the rest of the team. The contingent departs for Sri Lanka tomorrow, and their opener against Pakistan is the first big challenge. The real test, though, is still a month and some days away.
