A focussed Mohammed Shami spent considerable time with bowling coach Morne Morkel as a full-strength Indian team started its training in earnest ahead of its Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh at the picturesque ICC Academy practice ground in Dubai on Sunday. With the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) strictly in place, there was no question of an optional session and right from skipper Rohit Sharma to the youngest Harshit Rana, the entire squad was present where Shami’s routines were interesting. Having recently made his international comeback against England in both T20Is and ODIs, the stretchable knee caps did not go unnoticed as he first tried to get a feel of the conditions by bowling a few deliveries with a short run-up.
He looked gingerly in his initial strides even as others engaged in their physical drills, while a few others engaged in some fun and games activity aimed at improving anticipation and decision-making.
Before the batters entered the nets, Shami was trying to adjust his length and walked up towards the batter’s end in the net with bowling coach Morne Morkel in tow.
From a distance, it seemed that he was discussing the ideal length as he stood on the popping crease at the batter’s end.
Shami was seen pointing at a certain length outside the batter’s crease which could be termed good length (4m to 6m) region. He gestured to indicate that he was trying to move the ball from that particular length as Morkel listened to him intently.
Once the batters joined the nets, Shami was seen bowling full tilt and on occasions did hurry the batters.
Hardik Pandya and Shreyas Iyer were seen depositing Kuldeep Yadav and other spinners over the fence on multiple occasions.
One such powerful hit from Pandya caused a minor but freakish accident as Rishabh Pant was hit on the knee. He was in pain but the physio Kamlesh Jain tended to him with a concerned Pandya coming out of the nets to check on his junior colleague.
But it didn’t turn out to be a serious issue as Pant padded up soon after the first team batters were finished with their sessions.
Kohli, as usual, looked a picture of concentration during the nets. Rohit had a spring in his step and seemed to be in a good mood after a match-wining century against England in Cuttack last week.
When the main batters were at the nets, the ones who were doing fielding drills with coach T Dilip were Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy and Pant.
They engaged in some single-action pick-up and throws. It also indicated that that the troika was perhaps not in the scheme of things as far as the first game against Bangladesh on February 20 is concerned.
The entire team seemed to be in good spirits as Kohli was seen joking during the fun activity which was unique in its own way.
One among Rohit or Virat was sending a tennis ball with racquet soaring and instead of catching, the first guy, who would be wearing a helmet, came under the ball and headed it. A wicked deviation would require the second man to catch it.
There are times when innovative games drills are introduced by Strength and Conditioning coaches to beat monotony.
“There is no specific purpose but innovative way of warming-up other than playing football. And if you ask about the broader goal, you can say that once the first guy heads it, others have to have their instincts up as the ball can come towards anyone and he has to react,” a well-known strength and conditioning coach told PTI.
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