The sun came beating hard at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday morning – a complete opposite to how it was a few days back with some showers late in the evening. The Indian team hit the ground at around half past ten and began their practice routine ahead of their semi-final clash against Australia. After having won their quarter-final match against Bangladesh, the team looked in good spirits and the players were calm and composed in their training drills.
India went with the regular regime – a few warm-ups drills to flex their muscles, a nice casual round of football and then straight to the nets. All batsmen had a long stay in the nets with MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher taking keen interest from the bowler’s end. Rohit Sharma, coming off a maiden World Cup ton, looked in sublime touch, middling the ball well much to the appreciation of his teammates. Right beside him was Shikhar Dhawan, who looked confident and made a conscious effort to leave certain deliveries.
Virat Kohli had a long stint at the nets and had his entire focus on each ball that he faced. Some of the shots that he hit made a sweet sound off the bat and India would be hoping their star batsman gets a big one come Thursday.
Suresh Raina, in the meanwhile, walked over to the corner-most training area and was seen being served some short stuff. Fielding coach R Sridhar gave a few with the leather ball and later India captain MS Dhoni walked over to the nets with a tennis racquet and tennis ball in his hand. Dhoni served a few with the tennis ball to Raina to which the left-hand batsman responded with a few leaves and pulls. This went on for close to 15-20 minutes and at the end of it Dhoni had a few words of advice for his teammate. After Raina, it was Shikhar Dhawan who went through the same procedure with the Indian captain. Quite naturally, India are expecting the Australian pacers to come hard at them with bouncers and are doing their best to be prepared for it.
James Faulkner, who addressed the media later in the afternoon, was asked if the short stuff would be a ploy that they would use against India. The left-arm bowler responded, “Naturally, in One-day cricket, short pitch bowling is used and I don’t think it is going to be any different against India. The use of the bouncers would depend a lot on the wicket and if there is bounce and carry. If you see a weakness on that day then we will use the bouncer to try and expose it. We haven’t spoken about the Indian team yet and they can train how they want to train.”
The Indian bowlers too bent their backs and racked up good speeds against their fellow batsmen. Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma sent a few whizzing past the batsmen’s chin while some of them were dealt with ease and severity. Both teams are gearing up for the big day and preparations look well and truly on track with just a couple of days left for the marquee clash at the SCG.
