BRIDGETOWN: There’s a tip for the Virat Kohli fans. If you really love watching the man bat, try getting into one of India’s net sessions. And if it’s from 45 yards just behind the stumps under the shadow of a Garry Sobers statue at the Kensington Oval, you’re a lucky guy.The comfort cushion of the ‘exhibition leg’ of the T20 World Cup, in the USA, is over. Now, under the sweltering sun of Barbados, India are preparing for their first Super 8 game against Afghanistan on Thursday.
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The team reached the city of Sobers, the 3 Ws, Malcolm Marshall and many others on Sunday and hit the ground running first thing on Monday. Despite the feel-good factor about the three victories in the USA leg, Kohli’s scores of 1, 4 and 0 wouldn’t have made him happy. The champion’s body language in front of cameras during practice doesn’t betray any sense of unease, but deep down he would be bothered.
And it’s this hunger to turn things around and make it his World Cup that seemed to be driving the modern master when he took guard against the best bowler in the world – Jasprit Bumrah.
The Mumbai Indians man wasn’t being friendly to Kohli at all in the nets, at least with the ball. It virtually felt like game-time as Bumrah explored his arsenal. “It doesn’t worry us at all that Kohli hasn’t got runs in the games in the US. He has been batting beautifully at the nets and he looks all the more hungry,” Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour had said after the Miami washout on Saturday.
Rathour was absolutely right. The short balls aimed at Kohli’s rib-cage were pulled ferociously while the ones pitched up were driven beautifully on Monday.
Kohli, playing as opener in the World Cup, quite clearly is looking to hit top gear right from the word go, even if he is coming off a rough patch.
A game against Afghanistan also entails dealing with wrist-spin. They have the wizard Rashid Khan and baby-faced chinaman Noor Ahmed in their ranks. Kohli needs to prepare for that and who better than Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav to provide necessary practice? While Chahal isn’t India’s No. 1 wrist-spin choice, Kuldeep is slightly unlucky that he is unable to find a place in the XI for now. The team management, however, has indicated that they want to keep him ready. The pitches in West Indies may just help the spinners and he could well be called on to play at some stage over the next fortnight.
While things looked really good for Kohli during the course of his 45-minute batting session, there’s another crucial player – Ravindra Jadeja – who is also looking for some batting form. And that’s probably the reason Jadeja was one of the first to go into the batting nets with Kohli. He did scratch around a bit, but the team management knows the CSK man is a big-game player.
At no stage will there be a discussion to drop him, and that’s why captain Rohit Sharma wants his big weapon to be ready for the final leg. After a long stint at the nets, Jadeja and Hardik Pandya were back in the main square, trying some range hitting, another important thing that was sorely missed from their games in the US.
The green expanse of the Kensington Oval also gave the Indian fielders chance to practice their drills, something they missed doing in the damp conditions in the US.
