Perth, Oct 11: (PTI) The decision to arrive early in Australia was all about acclimatising to weather and playing conditions and the Indian team management is pleased with the way the players are adjusting to the bounce and pace of the tracks ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Fourteen members of the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team reached Australia almost 20 days prior to its T20 World Cup opener against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23 and has been busy preparing for the tournament at the WACA ground here.
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The Indian players have been going through intense training, which includes sessions on endurance, batting and bowling at the nets and fielding practice.
The sessions have been held under the watchful eyes of head coach Rahul Dravid, batting coach Vikram Rathour, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach T Dilip.
“The focus was on only about getting used to the conditions. We all knew that conditions in Australia are going to be different, especially the pace and bounce that is different from Indian surfaces. So idea of coming here early and spent some time and practising here was to get used to these conditions and get used to the pace and bounce,” Rathour said in a video shared by BCCI on its twitter page.
“The boys have really worked hard and I think everybody has got some volumes in.”
In the video, bowling coach Mhambrey and fielding coach T Dilip also explained the drills of their respective departments.
“The bounce out here in Australia is totally different to what the last few games we played out here. So that gives a great opportunity to the bowlers to acclimatise to the conditions, to the bounce of the wicket, hitting those lengths, what are the individual lengths you want to hit,” Mhambrey said.
“We were pretty happy with the way the sessions have been. I think we got what we wanted out of the sessions and now we look forward to the games.”
Fielding coach Dilip added: “On day 1 what we wanted to achieve was spiking up the throwing intensity and also little catches. The most important factor is moving laterally, that was for a shorter distance for a lesser time.
“On day 2 what we wanted to achieve on this open ground was we observed that wind becomes a factor, so we did some high catches with a soft ball so that it wobbles a bit which gives a player a fair idea. And then we finished off with a cricket ball so that they get the real picture of what exactly was happening.”
India defeated Western Australia Cricket Association XI by 13 runs in their first practice game here on Monday.
The visitors will play another practice game against the same opposition on October 13 before travelling to Brisbane for the two official warm-up games against England and New Zealand.
