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Last chance for India to get things right
Training camp begins in Bengaluru ahead of the World Cup
With 42 days to go for the start of the ODI World Cup at home, India began preparations with a six-day camp near Bengaluru from Thursday.
After an extended period of experimenting with combination and gameplan, the think-tank has firmed up the core group who will train under head coach Rahul Dravid at Karnataka State Cricket Association's (KSCA) facility in Alur.
The final 15 players for the World Cup will be picked from the 18 members, including back-up batter-keeper Sanju Samon, at the camp.
The World Cup starts on October 5 but this is the only window available for the team to give final touches. The Asia Cup which begins on August 30 followed by a bilateral series against Australia and finally a couple of practice games in the lead-up to the World Cup.
“After a long time we have the opportunity to get all the players in for some skill-based training. We can rectify our weakness,” skipper Rohit Sharma had said on Monday when the squad for the Asia Cup was announced.
Apart from focused skill-based training, the team management has planned fitness tests. On Thursday, the cricketers did fitness drills including the Yo-Yo test for which the BCCI mandated fitness parameter is 16.5. Not surprisingly, Virat Kohli scored a high 17.2 in the test, which he revealed on Instagram. Captain Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya also successfully completed the tests.
At the camp, extra attention will be on KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer who have been recovering from thigh and back injuries respectively. They have been training at the National Cricket Academy so far. Rahul was also part of the fitness drills but was not included in the Yo-Yo test.
The India captain has said that no one is an automatic choice for the World Cup.
Rahul's batting workload is said to have pleased NCA’s medical staff but the captain and coach will be watching his wicket-keeping workload. Rahul picked up a niggle not related to his previous injury and is likely to be eased into the India setup.
Iyer’s back injury saw him miss games since March. Believed to have recovered, he is India’s designated No. 4. Iyer has played 20 innings as No.4 for India, scoring 805 runs at an average of 47.35. If fit, the two are India’s first-choice players in the middle-order.
Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma are expected to join on Friday. The weather’s unusually hot but from Friday, there will be increased outdoor activities with focus on match simulations and skill-set enhancement.
The camp is also an opportunity for senior pros Sharma and Kohli to start getting into their zone. They are coming off a break after the West Indies tour along with Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur.
