CHENNAI: AS the world entered the year 2022, India were busy taking on the hosts South Africa in the high-octane three-match Test series. From thereon, the team travelled across the length and breadth of the globe throughout the year playing bilateral series apart from featuring in the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. In the process, they played 83 international matches (7 Tests, 30 ODIs and 46 T20Is) till February 1, 2023. And then there is the Indian Premier League played over a little more than two months wherein almost every Indian player featured.
Given the sheer number of matches Indian cricketers play these days, there is hardly any time left for them to hold a camp and work on various aspects of the game. India head coach Rahul Dravid highlighted the issue in a video posted by the Indian cricket board (BCCI) on Twitter ahead of the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting with the first Test in Nagpur on February 9.
"You don't get time actually to do a camp or you can get an extended period of time where you get to work with players and build up towards the Test series," the former India captain told BCCI.tv speaking on the training sessions at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium, Civil Lines. "Just to be able to get this week has been really exciting for us and we, as coaching staff, have been planning and preparing for this for almost a month or so on what we will do in these four-five days. I'm glad it has all come together really well."
The two-day closed-door training gave a perfect opportunity to Dravid and his support staff to work on a few key areas, especially the close-in fielding before the team meets the visiting Aussies in the four-Test series to cement their spot in the World Test Championship final. Dravid, who holds the record for most catches in Tests (210 from 164 matches), witnessed India's forgettable fielding firsthand when multiple catches were dropped during the second Test against Bangladesh. Those missed chances almost gave the hosts their maiden Test win before Shreyas Iyer and R Ashwin bailed out the team with their gritty knocks.
What's more worrisome was the fact that one of the team's best fielders, Virat Kohli, dropped four catches in the slip cordon on Day 3 of the match in Mirpur. To be fair to him, a couple of them were quite difficult but given the standards Kohli has set in the field, he is expected to grab all the chances coming his way. Three of those reprieves were given to Litton Das, who went on to score 73 and in the process kept the fight going for his team to level the series.
The team management was expected to take note of the problem and the net sessions on Friday and Saturday were aimed at ironing out that flaw. "Fielding side of things as well, that has been really important as well. The close-in catching which we think is going to become a really important part of the series. There's a lot of emphasis and focus on close-in catching, slip fielding, things like that when you are on the road all the time and don't get time to build and work on those things."
After a day's rest on Sunday, the team will move to the VCA Stadium in Jamtha, the venue for the match. They will have an extended session at the stadium again on Monday before being joined by the visitors the day after. Both the teams will train alternately in the morning and afternoon till the eve of the match.
Speaking on the players and their fitness, Dravid said, "Everyone looks in really good shape. It's nice to get the Test team together again. We had a lot of white-ball cricket over the last month or so. Some of those boys, shifting from white-ball to red-ball, it's nice for them to just have that extended period in the nets. The surfaces have been really good as well."
Not among the ones, who could be pleased easily, Dravid wants more. "Even though this is a short one by my standards, I like to have longer camps where we can work with people. But even then, we're happy to get five days or six days here in Nagpur."
The efforts, no matter how short they have been according to Dravid's standards, would have to bear fruits when the series begins as a lot would depend on the first match if Rohit Sharma and Co wish to be one of the two teams playing at The Oval, London come June.