MUMBAI: On typically patchy subcontinent wickets, when puffs of dust make life horrible for batsmen to spot even good length deliveries in the dying minutes of each day, it not easy for the umpires either. More often than not, it the ref who busy praying for the fielding captain to ask for a new ball. The red of the ball and the red of the soil present a nightmarish blend.
Between 2016 and 2017 – beginning with New Zealand tour of India and concluding with India recent Test series win in Sri Lanka if India ended up flexing muscle once again, it was all about excelling and dominating in subcontinent conditions. Having done that, this beautifully scripted chapter – one that saw the team rise to the top of the world rankings – has to take a back seat for now. The Indian team firmly believes the time has come to shift focus to a bigger, and a more pressing issue that remained unresolved. It time to find home away from home, now says the Team India camp.
Starting January 2018, India will embark on a four-Test series in South Africa, followed by a long summer in England playing five Test matches and conclude with a four-Test series in Australia, starting Boxing Day. A total of 13 Test matches – the same number of games they played in India between September 2016 and March 2017 – will present this young bunch with an overseas challenge like never before.
a challenge that the boys have already started warming up to. To survive 2018 will not just require giving up on home comfort, but standing up to some of the biggest challenges that the game has to offer. It ll either set these boys up for a great future or show them the mirror right away and they know it more than anyone else, says coach Ravi Shastri.
On that note, preparations have already begun. Offspinner R Ashwin left for Worcestershire immediately after the end of the Test series in Sri Lanka while Cheteshwar Pujara is already in Nottinghamshire, extending his earlier commitment. In fact, the two are set for a face-off at Trent Bridge on September 5, and they ve both got their tasks cut out. The BCCI, to its credit, has backed these players to travel a paradigm shift from their earlier stand in not allowing Indian cricketers to play in domestic circuits overseas. This came after skipper Virat Kohli got vocal last year about the
importance of playing in County cricket if India were to apply themselves better abroad.
In fact, the BCCI will certainly do better if it helps Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, and a couple of others who are looking for overseas domestic stints. Back in the Indian camp, Shastri emphasis is on the basics, as much as it about coordinating the schedule. The Indian cricketers want to spend at least two weeks in South Africa before the Test series begins, and to that effect, the Board is busy trying to schedule a December 28 departure for the team. We will have to play at least two warm-up games. We have preferred more but the series against Sri Lanka is finishing only by around December 24, he says.
Kohli is clear that fitness will have to be the key if India need to survive this challenge. On this front, the skipper himself has been leading from the front. His fitness goals are pretty simple. He just
wants to be 25 percent fitter in comparison to his closest competitor, say those who watch the 28-year- old go about his work ethics.
Shastri wants the rest of the boys to watch and learn. A bar had to be set and it needs to be followed at all costs. There going to be no respite whats over, says the coach.
Bureau Report
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