ICC events in recent years have witnessed the Indian cricket team devising unique ways of training and it was no different this time around with the side employing a unique ‘two-bench’ theory to counter the pace and bounce of Pakistani bowlers in its World Cup opening match.
During the last World T20 in Bangladesh, Indian bowlers were sending down deliveries to a 10-feet tall batting mannequin to hone their skills in channel bowling. This time, the batsmen devised a unique throw-down session using two small benches.
The idea behind the innovation is to get the batsmen well equipped to counter the threat that 7-foot-tall Pakistani paceman Mohammed Irfan could pose.
After Virat Kohli practised at the main nets, he went to the corner of the St. Peter’s Main Oval ground to get some throw-downs from team’s specialist Raghavendra.
The throw-down expert was told to dig one delivery short, which Kohli would immediately move back and across to pull. This was followed by a fuller throw-down to counter the pitched-up delivery.
Once he had taken sufficient throw-downs, Kohli and later Ajinkya Rahane went to the adjacent net where two small benches around 20 inches tall were kept side by side.
Assistant coach Sanjay Bangar stood on one of the benches with the throw-down equipment and then stepped on the other to throw balls from a good height.
The logic behind the exercise is to get a feel for the steep bounce that Irfan might generate from just short of good length.
Bangar, standing on the bench, sent down deliveries from close to 10 feet (keeping the huge arm action of throw-downs), which will be a foot more than the height from which Irfan is expected to deliver.
It was Kohli who spent the maximum time practising — he batted more than an hour put together at the two nets. Both Duncan Fletcher and team director Ravi Shastri kept a close eye on the batsman as he practised with all the concentration in the world.
The Indian practice session could be segregated into specific areas that players concentrated on.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni arrived an hour into the session as he had taken a morning flight from Melbourne to reach Adelaide.
Dhoni batted mostly against slow bowlers like R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and some young boys from the South Australian High Performance Centre.
The fielding session under R. Sridhar also was unique.
Sridhar made the trio of Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Stuart Binny throw from the deep. The idea was to judge how quickly they reach the ball and have a perfect pick-up-and-throw.
“I want to see the power, guys!” Sridhar shouted as Shami ran for the ball.
Later, Sridhar had a ‘position-specific session’ with Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan.
Raina is expected to field at either point or cover point. Accordingly, an imaginary fielding set-up was done with Sridhar playing the cut shot — either in front of square or behind square — and Raina was diving on both sides to stop the balls. The same drill was repeated for Dhawan.
Shastri was later seen having a long chat with Dhoni.
