India shape up with fitness mantra
Favourites in the limitedovers series against Sri Lanka, India focus on improving their fitness
No 3 in the ICC ODI rankings, are favourites against Sri Lanka, ranked No 8 in the list and it was understandable the team’s focus was on improving its level. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were reportedly omitted for this series as they didn’t meet the fitness standards set and coach Ravi Shastri has said agility will be the key going forward.
“When the time comes for India to field a side for the 2019 50-over World Cup, we should have the best fielding XI in the world. Only the fittest of the lot will survive and thrive going forward and that’s right up there in the list of priorities.”
Batsman Manish Pandey, fresh from leading India A to the Tri-series win in South Africa, is confident India would come on top in the limited-overs series as well. “A couple of things we have in our favour, we whitewashed them in the Test series, so they might be a little down. But this is where we have to focus and keep playing our cricket well, and do our basics right.”
But the team’s focus on Friday was on fitness rather than tactics. “We had a meeting and spoke about it (fitness) for an hour and everybody is happy with it. From the seniormost guy, MS Dhoni, to the juniormost Kuldeep Yadav, everybody is happy (about pushing fitness levels). If it is an advantage for me, I would love to take it up and work hard.
Asked about the routine of Kohli and Rahul after the batting nets, he said: “Everybody has their own thing to do, individual warm-up and training, whatever helps to take our game to the next level. This is what we do the whole year; it’s not just the cricket we play. The test we have, at least twice a year, we all prepare for that as well.”