The initial setting resembled a college before balls were repeatedly smashed out of the stadium
Shashank Kishore25-Aug-2022There was an air of bristling energy around Virat Kohli. Within minutes of the Indian team arriving for their first training session for the Asia Cup, he sent the shutterbugs into a tizzy. His handshake with Babar Azam elicited full-blown discussions about cricket’s latest bromance.Rashid Khan, who had just wrapped up training with the Afghanistan team, quickly jogged up to greet Kohli and gave him a hug. Rashid then proceeded to banter with Pakistan vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan. Everyone laughed, and for a moment, the setting at the ICC Academy in Dubai – on a day that touched temperatures of 46°C by the afternoon – had changed to a college .Related
Suryakumar Yadav: Behind square, one step ahead of bowlers
Akram: Pakistan believe they can 'compete against India day in and day out'
Posers for India: The same old top three? Pant or Karthik, or both?
Asia Cup battles: Babar takes on Rashid, Kohli goes up against Hasaranga
Men who compete fiercely on the field, punch the air and pop nerves in celebration, and give send-offs every now and then, were all mushy and brotherly. But once the Pakistan and Afghanistan teams dispersed, it was business as usual for the Indian team. From an , there was an air of intensity to everything they did.KL Rahul, Deepak Hooda and Avesh Khan, all of whom linked up with the squad from Zimbabwe on Tuesday evening, were given a day off, while Rishabh Pant didn’t train. The remaining 11 players in the squad went full tilt under the supervision of stand-in coach VVS Laxman. The squad was also assisted by two net bowlers: Punjab’s left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar and Delhi’s left-arm pacer Siddhant Sharma.The players indulged in a bit of warm-up football and a light jog around the ground before they got ready for a net session that lasted close to two and a half hours. Just minutes before the start of the training session, the team’s throwdown experts carefully examined every inch of the 22-yard practice strip by hurling down deliveries at different lengths to check for consistency in bounce. Once the green signal was given, it was all systems go.Kohli came bounding out of the shed first, armed with three bats, and immediately set the ball rolling against spinners with a series of big hits in the “V”. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal all challenged him by setting imaginary fields, but Kohli was willing himself to take them on.He was beaten off his very first ball by Ashwin’s drifter, but quickly put that behind him to stretch his front foot out to the maximum extent possible and made a sweet connection multiple times to send the ball into the basketball court and the adjacent ground.Kohli hit Chahal inside-out over covers as well, as if to show he wasn’t just keen on hitting down the ground. Towards the end of his session against spin, he even attempted the reverse paddle and switch hit, albeit with less success.
Hello DUBAI
Hugs, smiles and warm-ups as we begin prep for #AsiaCup2022 #AsiaCup | #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/bVo2TWa1sz
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 24, 2022