The sun wasn’t beating hard here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, instead there was a gush of wind, a few drops of rain and a chill in the air. India made their way back to Melbourne from Auckland last night and hit the field for a light session of practice late in the noon on Tuesday. The team began their drills with a few warm-up exercises and jogs around the field.
There were no batting drills as the centre wicket at the MCG and the nets outdoors were covered owing to a slight drizzle. Instead the team had a round of fielding sessions wherein the players took turns in holding on to high catches hurled up in the sky by Raghavindraa, one of the team’s support staff who throws down cricket balls at the batsmen for long hours tirelessly. Instead of the throwdowns, he was vested the responsibility of giving the team high catches with a unique looking bat that was trimmed down from the sides leaving only the middle in focus. That, according to the team management is a bat which is occasionally used by batsmen during their batting drills to gauge how well and often they find the middle of the bat.
Interestingly, it was used for giving the team high catches this noon. The ball went soaring high and credit to the fielders, they held on to most of them which was applauded by the team members. After sometime, the team lined themselves up for a game of football which has been quite a norm in most practice drills. Every goal was cheered, every defensive push followed up by a laugh and the team ended their optional practice session after half an hour of football. The team looked in good spirits and are expected to be back on the ground early in the morning on the eve of their quarter-final clash against Bangladesh on Thursday at the MCG.
