The Indian team arrived in Mumbai on Monday after their 100-run triumph over defending champions England in Lucknow on Sunday night
India’s Shreyas Iyer during a nets session at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pic/PTI
After six games, Rohit Sharma & Co remain unbeaten in the ongoing World Cup. The two-time champions will be playing their first game of the tournament at the Wankhede Stadium against Sri Lanka on Thursday, the same venue where the MS Dhoni-led Indian team outclassed Kumar Sangakkara’s Lankan side and clinched the 2011 World Cup. However, the current Kusal Mendis-led SL outfit are struggling with just two wins in the tournament.
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The Indian team arrived in Mumbai on Monday after their 100-run triumph over defending champions England in Lucknow on Sunday night.
Though it was an optional practice session, seven India players preferred to be at Wankhede to practise under the guidance of head coach Rahul Dravid and other support staff members.
Main concern
It looked like the main area of concern in Tuesday’s practice session for Dravid and batting coach Vikram Rathour was training Mumbai boy Shreyas Iyer to play short-pitched balls effortlessly.
Immediately after arriving at his home ground in the afternoon, Iyer faced net bowlers for around half-an-hour.
Apart from Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja and Ishan Kishan practised in the nets, but Iyer’s main focus was to tackle bouncers without giving away his wicket.
After facing the net bowlers, Iyer shifted base to the adjacent pitch, where Team India’s throw-down specialist—Raghavendra D and left-arm Nuwan Seneviratne (from SL) bowled several bouncers.
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Dravid joins in throw-downs
Later, Dravid joined them in testing Iyer’s skills by throwing several balls. On most occasions, Iyer was seen playing pull shots conveniently and giving bouncers the right treatment by dispatching them over the fence. But, when he decided to take throw-downs on another pitch, he was seen avoiding the aerial route and mostly keeping the balls along the ground while hitting them.
Iyer, who got out trying to smash England pacer Chris Woakes’s back-of-a-length delivery on Sunday, has managed just 134 runs from six games in the tournament.
Meanwhile, taking high catches near the Sachin Tendulkar Stand, where batting icon Tendulkar’s grand statue is placed and will be unveiled today evening, players were keenly observing Tendulkar’s style of playing a lofted straight drive over the bowler’s head through the statue.
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