BENGALURU: After over two months away from bat and ball, cricketers have started the process of getting back in action. While activities like players running and doing physical workouts have resumed in Chennai’s MAC Stadium, a bunch of cricketers based in Bengaluru have gone a step further and started having net practice.
The Karnataka State Cricket Association’s facilities have not opened yet, so the likes of Robin Uthappa, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron and David Mathias are having nets at Karnataka Institute of Cricket (KIOC), a private coaching academy in the city, from this week. There are a few junior players accompanying them during training. “We are excited to come back and practise. It’s a lot quieter than normal, since there are just the few of us.
We get a lot of time to talk to each other, like I speak to Shreyas about batting,” said Mathias, who has made 10 appearances for Karnataka across formats in the last five years. “Whatever practice we have had, it has been good. We are giving feedback to each other about our game as well.” Things have changed for cricketers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They have temperature checks at the entrance and have to use hand sanitisers regularly.
As a precautionary measure, Mathias is also bringing his own set of balls for practice. There will be more things to get used to, like not applying saliva to polish the ball, playing in front of empty stands and no high fives or familiar modes of celebration after the fall of wickets. Medium-pacer Mathias is aware of this and making efforts to deal with the changed scenario. “Things are a bit different. I am not using saliva on the ball. It is about getting used to it and it will become a habit. I have noticed that the ball may not be doing too much, but it is important to figure something out,” said Mathias.