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Relaxed. That is what the Indian team are feeling at the moment. In
fact, that seems to have been their state of mind throughout the
tournament. Their progress might have caught the cynics off guard,
especially back home, but MS Dhoni and his team could not care less.
Although Dhoni did point out on the eve of the first warm-up match
that it was surprising not to see numerous Indian TV channels, who had
boycotted the event, unhappy with the terms and conditions set by the
ICC over accreditation for non-rights holders.
Away from the glare of relentless media attention, India have trained
quietly and purposefully. And it was the same in Cardiff on a warm and
sunny Tuesday afternoon, where India did nothing out of the ordinary,
two days ahead of their semi-final against Sri Lanka. Being such a big
match, it is normal to expect teams to bring extra intensity to
training. But India decided to keep things simple; greasing the nuts
and bolts so that they are ready to roll out smoothly come Thursday.
Suresh Raina, obsessive when it comes to training, turned up first at
Sophia Gardens, an hour before the rest of the squad arrived (at the
scheduled time) in the afternoon. Taking throw downs from the fielding
coach Trevor Penney, Raina focused on every aspect of his batting,
especially against the moving and short ball. The success of the top
order has not allowed Raina much time in the middle, so it was key that
he remained in the right frame of mind.
Elsewhere, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik asked Penney to feed them
length balls, as they wanted to make certain they were sensing, eyeing
and timing well. Kohli focused on leaving the ball as he felt he was not
letting them go as much as he should have during match situations.
Karthik went so far as to berate himself after pulling a ball too far
away from his body. He communicated that to Penny, even pointing the
exact distance he had connected with the ball, when all of the time he
should have been lunging forward to play the pull.
Earlier, Karthik was involved in an animated chat with Indian coach
Duncan Fletcher, with both men discussing the finer points about the
upper cut and pull shot. It would have been fascinating to hear what was
being said, but Fletcher seemed to galvanise Karthik, who was hell bent
on getting things precise later.
Although the success of the Indian batting has been the central point of
focus, the fast bowlers have also toiled hard, despite not having much
experience with the white Kookaburra, bar Ishant Sharma. Today, Joe
Dawes, the Indian bowling coach, put the trio of Ishant Sharma, Umesh
Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar through various drills, pointing out exactly
what each needed to do in order to be more sharp. Lengths, body
movement and getting certain variations accurate seemed to be Dawes'
focus during the hour-long session.
Dawes, a former Queensland fast bowler, and a policeman, is a methodical
guy, and at times irritates the batsmen by refusing to give them easy
balls, even during throw downs. This fact was not lost on Kohli, who
teased Dawes for never giving batsmen any allowance. "Always at the
batsman's wrists. You can throw 300 balls, but only five will be easy to
drive," Kohli joked with Dawes, who was giving a slightly hard time to
Bhuvneshwar at the time.
Such light-hearted banter only happens when a team is functioning
smoothly. And that has remained the key to India's success in this
Champions Trophy.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Nagraj Gollapudi
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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