The whole of India wants it to be Sachin Tendulkar’s World Cup. And why not! As soon as the team bus arrived at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, one spotted the maestro sitting in the first row. Tendulkar may not be leading the side, but looking at the manner in which he stepped out of the vehicle, one could sense that hunger in him. The World Cup means a lot to him and that was more than evident ahead of the first practice session.
The entire team participated in a football game. Tendulkar left the field a little later, and spent the rest of the day at the NCA gymnasium. Coach Gary Kirsten is keen on getting the players ready for Sunday’s warm-up game against Australia. He chose to engage the boys in some light workout and short stints at the nets.
Kirsten was the busiest man around. The South African was seen throwing balls at Virender Sehwag and then Gautam Gambhir. The last batsman to face Kirsten was YuvrajSingh. The coach also had a word with Yuvi. The others who had a hit were Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh, who, surprisingly, did not bowl on Wednesday. Skipper MS Dhoni also batted for 10 minutes at an extreme corner of the nets.
The bowlers, too, had a light session with Eric Simons keeping a close watch. The bowling coach, who stationed himself behind the stumps, made good use of his baseball glove. Ashish Nehra was seen working very hard. The left-arm pacer was trying to get his run-up and rhythm right.
Meanwhile, Kirsten was quick to point out to National Cricket Academy director Sandeep Patil that the practice pitches had a lot of grass. He then ensured that the grass was shaved off.
One reckons India will try to make full use of the home advtange. After all, the flat tracks will only help out batsmen and spinners. Before he left for the day, Kirsten had a nice look at the bald pitch. It was an indication of what we’d see in the days to come.
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