V.V.S. Laxman trains Bengal batsmen in an online session

Bengal cricketers Abhishek Raman and Kazi Junaid Saifi had an online training session with former India batsman VVS Laxman on Monday.

V.V.S. Laxman trained Bengal batsmen Abhishek Raman and Kazi Junaid Saifi in an online session on Monday.

 

Bengal cricketers Abhishek Raman and Kazi Junaid Saifi had an online training session with former India batsman VVS Laxman on Monday.

With the COVID-19 lockdown bringing sporting activities to a halt, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) had decided to help out the Ranji Trophy cricketers by conducting sessions with Laxman, who is also the batting consultant for the Vision Project.

And on day one, Laxman discussed a few points to prepare the players for yet another gruelling season.

“We had sent him the video footages of all the players and after analysing them, Laxman had sessions with the players and advised them on how to go ahead,” CAB chief, Avishek Dalmiya, told Sportstar.

Bengal head coach Arun Lal and CAB’s Cricket Operations manager, Joydeep Mukherjee, were present in the video session.

This publication understands that Laxman divided the session into two halves. In the first half with Kazi , he discussed issues like positivity, pressure of U-23 cricket to senior cricket, how to deal with failures, how to transform the game powered by mental conditioning.

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With Raman, however, discussions were around the “mindset, how to deal with failure despite a good start to the season, how to regain confidence, the way forward, how to control the mind and of course on how to bat for the first one hour in bowling-friendly pitches.”

“It was a good session. VVS is a thorough professional. He advised them on how to learn from the season gone by,” Lal said, making it clear that such specialised sessions will happen over the next few weeks. “VVS’ work ethics is second to none. And we have had online sessions for the past few weeks. In times like these, we have been attached to each other via digital mediums. The trainer (Sanjib Das) ensured that he monitored every move.”

From left: Abhishek Raman, Joydeep Mukherjee, V.V.S. Laxman and Arun Lal in a split-screen conversation.

 

Bengal reached the final of the Ranji Trophy this season, but went down to Saurashtra in the summit clash. And learning from the mistakes, the CAB wanted to start its preparations early.

“He will continue the session over the next few days with other batsmen. And once things improve, he will travel to Kolkata for a proper pre-season camp,” Dalmiya informed.

Laxman wasn’t available for a comment at the time of publishing this story.