In cricket, Indian players are the rock stars. A routine pre-game training session at the Adelaide Oval here on Tuesday, acquired a festival air as nearly 3000 fans thronged the venue, lending their full-throated acoustics as an accompaniment to the thwack of the pink ball thudding into an eager bat. As Sania Mirza once said about Indian fandom, truly ‘we are so many of us!’
Camera phones got busy, photos taken, calls made, social media was spammed and cries of ‘Kohli’ and ‘Rohit’ rent the air. Seemingly immune to this external noise, the cricketers got down to the business of sweating it out while the venue’s guards were perplexed at all this attention. There was a scramble for space around the nets before a tiny area was earmarked for the media.
The coffee shop quickly ran out of food and beverages, while snatches of Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil and Kannada were heard in the background. Be it Aaron Finch in 2019 or Pat Cummins now, all Australian captains have spoken about how they are all used to this overwhelming Indian presence across the globe. It was the turn of the Adelaide Oval to reiterate this truth.
Initially, the fans were stumped as Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant turned in an hour early and sought their quiet time. All it needed was for a few to spot them and then the rush began. One youngster moved to the side of the net and said: “Hello Rohit.” The skipper politely told the intrusive follower to move further away and watch. The batters then got into their groove, and swapped their sessions against throw-downs and regular bowlers.
Rohit asked his friend and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar about his impressions. The latter spoke about some changes spotted in the former’s initial trigger movement. Rohit clarified that he was aware and then spoke about countering the angle of left-arm speedsters, obviously a veiled reference to Mitchell Starc. The sessions continued and Pant was astounded that Rohit could tackle the light and shadow variance on his pitch as the sun descended.
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As word spread, more turned up through the gates past the River Torrens. Meanwhile, the full squad appeared and indulged in a spot of kick-volleyball, a sport in which only legs are employed and some rare headers are dished out. There was laughter and some friendly arguments. Later it was all about fielding drills, and every catch taken evoked the applause befitting a goal scored in a football World Cup’s summit clash.
Soon, it was again time for nets with Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rohit, Pant and Washington Sundar being the first set of batters at work. Jasprit Bumrah and his pack, R. Ashwin and fellow spinners, were all in operation as the pink ball was dealt with under the sun and floodlights. These training programs will surely get more intense as India gears up for the day-and-night second Test here from Friday.
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