Barbados (West Indies): Kuldeep Yadav turning the ball at nets, Virat Kohli taking guard for the longest time, Yuzvendra Chahal turning his arm and Rohit Sharma pulling Arshdeep Singh with signature laziness — Team India got going in the Caribbean with a full-team practice session at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on Tuesday.
This was the second day in a row that the entire team turned up for nets despite it being optional. Keeping in mind the turning tracks, skipper Rohit Sharma may draft in Yadav in the match against Afghanistan whose captain Rashid Khan has been on a fairy tale bowling story in the journey to the knockout stage.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, around whom there was an injury scare chirp, looked fit as a fiddle and batted his regular regimen both on Monday and today. After a loosener with his mates and a game of friendly hockey, he padded up for net practice first with throwdowns and then facing Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Dube in turns.
Kohli has seen an unusual run drought in the Group stage of the tournament where in three outings he did not get to a double-digit score, being done in by a volatile pitch, scoring a golden duck too much to the regret of the fans. At Barbados, where the pitch is batting-friendly with a spike of turn for a bit before it progresses to compliance, will be the place where Kohli could start showing the prowess with the willow he is so known for.
After a more than fertile Indian Premier League (IPL) stint, he has struggled for runs till now but as they say there is no keeping him down and the Caribbean would be another story for him. Practising his favourite cover drive, slog and flick shots to Arshdeep’s and Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling, he was animated about his executions.
He took a long batting session at the nets as the sun played peekaboo with the clouds amid an occasional and harmless drizzle. Accompanying him on the next track was Rohit Sharma whose lusty shots, mainly the delightful pulls he so easily orchestrates, was also hard at work as Kuldeep Yadav teased him with some early turns.
Sharma has come to the Caribbean with a much-talked-about spin quartet to deal with the turning Caribbean pitches and the initial turn that Kuldeep was getting at nets. The spin foursome was hard at work with Yuzvendra Chahal going after Kohli and Axar and Jadeja turning their arm too.
An intense session of full team practice session shows how determined the unit is to work their way from the Super 8 stage to the Final in Barbados on June 29. This has been the first time in the tournament that the Men in Blue got to practice at the match venue and absorb the feel of the stadium before they go into their first Super 8 match against Afghanistan on June 20, 2024.
