BENGALURU: Sets of foot tennis, Jasprit Bumrah imitating Anil Kumble’s run-up and Kuldeep Yadav getting some catching practice in the outfield were just few of the many things on the agenda two days out from their last league game against the Netherlands.
Even though it was an optional training session, it was almost a full house as most of the players preferred to train rather than be at the hotel. Among the batters, the first one to have a hit was Mohammed Shami. It was telling that the pacer had indulged in boundary hitting practice.
After he joined the bowling group, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli all took turns under the M Chinnaswamy lights. Kohli, meanwhile, trained against left-arm spin, which could come in handy against New Zealand should they meet in Mumbai in the first semifinal.
The former Indian captain, in the past, have been tested by left-arm seamers and it could prove to be a challenge against the 2019 finalists. On Sunday, however, Kohli and the others will face a different challenge from Netherlands, for they, too, have a quality bowling attack that has troubled different sides.
Before the players sweated it out at the nets, there was a lot of fun and games in the now traditional session of foot tennis. While the likes of KL Rahul (one of the biggest football fans in this group) showed some good touches, some of the others displayed some questionable skills.