Coach Gary Kirsten spends day two of conditioning camp in Banglore ironing out batting chinks especially the problem of tackling short deliveries
Coach Gary Kirsten spends day two of conditioning campu00a0in Banglore ironing outu00a0batting chinks especially the problem of tackling short deliveries
MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and RP Singh along with Sachin Tendulkar were the last to leave the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Day Two of the conditioning camp here yesterday.
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Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir works out at the Chinnaswamy Stadium nets in Bangalore yesterday. PIC/AFP |
They were exhausted. Not just after gruelling training and net sessions but after a round of badminton played at the Stadium's courts. Harbhajan Singh joined in for a bit too.
That, apart from a round of football, was probably the only fun aspect of the day when all the focus remained on getting ready for the fast South African pitches during the Champions Trophy.
All the attention was on banging it in short and testing the batsmen out after the criticism surrounding the way the young batsmen handled the short stuff at the ICC World T20 tournament.
Four pitches of varying natureu00a0 were laid out for the batsmen. All the nets were focussed on getting the batsmen to react in case a short ball comes along.
One-off"It was just one game in which we had trouble (against short-pitched bowling) and you can't judge based on that. Our young cricketers have had an extended period of success and consistency. Of course, when we practice, we cover all bases. We prepare the best we can so that we have a higher chance of success," coach Gary Kirsten had said.
Yesterday, the South African used a tennis racquet to fire in balls at the batsmen's chest on a cement pitch. Elsewhere, fielding coach Robin Singh fired in balls from the bowling machine. The focus was on the younger batsmen like Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar and Suresh Raina. They spent valuable time dealing with short balls.
Raina in particular was criticised for his inability to play the rising ball in the World T20. Tendulkar took some time off to help the youngster with Dhoni chipping in too.
