The Indian cricket team stars toiled in a 3-day simulation game against India A that saw all of the top stars like Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, etc. getting into action. While the first day featured a real cricketing contest, the second day had a mix of both a game and net sessions. The struggles of batters like Kohli, Gill, Pant, etc. became public as pacers ran riot in the practice game. Kohli, in fact, had to bat twice on the same day after getting dismissed for 15 on the first day. India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar has explained the rationale behind the structure that was created for the simulation game at WACA.
In a video shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on social media, Nayar explained the crux of the discussion held by head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma for the practice routine. It was then the decision to give players maximum time in the middle was taken.
“Just before we came to Australia, Gauti bhai and Rohit had a discussion about what we wanted from these three days. The idea was to make sure that the experienced and younger guys got a lot of time in the center to adapt and understand the conditions. We are coming here and playing Test cricket after 4 years,” Nayar said in the BCCI video.
Kohli scored 15 and 30 not-out in the two outings he had. The initial idea was to get a game-like situation where a batter goes back if he goes out. But, Nayar revealed that the rules changed later on.
“Initially, we got the guys to come in, had it like a game, where you got out, you got out. But then we tired to give them another chance and we felt that second time around, the guys adapted better, understood the conditions better, were a lot for comfortable,” he added.
On the second day, India’s mainstream bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, etc. bowled the maximum, getting into the rhythm ahead of the Perth Test.
“Day 2 was quite similar where we were also using the facilities outside in the nets, getting the quantity and quality down in the center. Day 2 was about our bowlers coming and bowling spells, bowling 15 overs each, Boom (Bumrah) bowled 18 overs. It was about getting the guys into game sense,” he revealed.
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