Team India
After Praveen Kumar’s elbow injury ruled him out of the World Cup, the Indian team management seemed to be extra cautious and careful about the players who are coming back from injuries.
No wonder that coach Gary Kirsten paid special attention to the Delhi duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir who have recently recuperated from shoulder and elbow injuries respectively, during the first day of India’s short pre-World Cup camp that got underway at the National Cricket Academy on Wednesday. Both Sehwag and Gambhir didn’t take part in the ODI series in South Africa keeping the World Cup in mind.
Sehwag was the first to hit the nets and knocked for about 30 minutes, followed by Gambhir and then Yuvraj Singh. Kirsten, who according to Indian team members never gets tired by giving throw downs, did the same for the trio. After a much-needed 16-day break, the members of the squad seemed to have refreshed as one saw the players upbeat and happy during their two-hour session.
The session started with a 30-minute football match between two groups in which coach Kirsten also participated and then most of the top-order batsmen save senior-most pro Sachin Tendulkar had a knock at the nets. The maestro preferred spending some quality time at the NCA gymnasium.
The other Indian batsmen, including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan were also seen knocking at the adjacent nets. Barring Harbhajan Singh, all the bowlers, including part-time spinners Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj, rolled their arms in the presence of bowling coach Simmons.
Simmons also paid special attention to the fringe bowlers like Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin and S Sreesanth. Harbhajan preferred to stay away from the net session on Wednesday and was seen doing some light stretching exercises during the fag end of the session.
The serious business, however, is expected to start from Thursday as India play their first warm-up match against Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday before leaving for Chennai where they will round off the preparation with the second and the last practice match against New Zealand on February 16.
Tags: Cricket, Cricket World Cup, India, Indian Sports, Sports, Sports India, Team India, World Cup
