The booming drives, the ferocious cuts and the lofted shots were the order of the day at the Indian team’s training session today as batsmen concentrated on taking the aerial route after a subdued start to the World Twenty20 against Afghanistan.
If one takes a close look at the Indian batting card in their opening game against Afghanistan, the champions of the 2007 edition could hit only four sixes, and that too against an inexperienced attack.
Virat Kohli hit two while there was just one each for Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Kohli’s second six, in fact, could have ended in a catch had the fielder stationed at deep mid-wicket not made a mess of it.
No wonder, each and every batsman decided to go all out during the gruelling three-hour training session at the P Sara Oval ground here, two days ahead of the big-ticket encounter against defending champions England.
From Gautam Gambhir to Irfan Pathan, everyone seemed to be in a mood to clear the ropes whether while facing the bowlers at nets or while receiving throwdowns.
It seemed the aim was to compensate for the lack of big ones against the minnows the other night.
In contrast, the Indian bowlers again looked lacklustre as Zaheer Khan, L. Balaji and Irfan Pathan were taken to the cleaners by Dhoni and company.
The drill was simple — each and every batsman faced throwdowns from Trevor Penney and Joe Dawes before going to the nets. The instructions seemed to be clear — go for the maximum.
While the batsmen played the big shots, the bowlers looked like they were going through the motions.
Zaheer, who has copped a lot of flak of late for being out of sorts, didn’t look in his element.
‘Zak’, as he is popularly known in the dressing room, was singled out by Dhoni who tried his trademark ‘helicopter shot’ time and again.