No Caribbean cruise as fitness the focus
It’s about 10 am at Sugar Ridge resort in Antigua, India’s second stop before landing in Jamaica for the final leg. Shikhar Dhawan enters the gym with wife Ayesha, a kick boxer, while R Ashwin is already there lifting weights.
The off-spinner has lost lot of weight, looking lean like Dhawan and Virat Kohli.
Newcomer Rishabh Pant, who still has some body mass, is on the treadmill. It’ll take a couple of tours before he gets to the male equivalent of ‘size zero’.
“Play or no play, the guys have to burn the same amount of calories every day. There can’t be one off-day that can threaten to take them a step back,” informs a team member.
Every player had a cottage to himself in a quiet area of the resort where India stayed in Antigua. But elsewhere in the resort bands played and people danced and drank.
But as an Indian team member says, “Virat Kohli wouldn’t want those places for the team. He is in bed at 9-9.30 pm.”
If that information about the skipper’s sleeping habit is right, it is a sea change for a player known to hit the bed only in the wee hours even while playing age-group cricket.
There is a small Indian restaurant Castaways, with two Indian chefs, at Jolly Beach, about 500 metres away from Sugar Ridge. That is the farthest the players went sometimes, to eat and bond over beach volleyball.
On two successive days, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami had dalchaawal at Castaways, but that is as far as the players would indulge themselves while the support staff had a few drinks and calorie-rich food.
“They have to make these sacrifices, keep temptations away. It is hard,” informs the member.
There are few takers for Indian food among players anyway. “Kohli and many others don’t normally eat rice, bread or anything that can affect their fitness or make them feel lethargic,” says the team member.
Ishant Sharma, who is not on this tour, recently told this correspondent how the Indian players’ diet is mostly gluten-free and that powerlifting has been added to their workouts.
“This team is really
focused and disciplined. We think about sleeping times and eating habits,” says Ajinkya Rahane. “During IPL, I didn’t get time but during the Champions Trophy, I worked on my fitness really hard and that is proving handy here,” said the in-form batsman. “Fitness is important. We’ve been playing continuously since the New Zealand series, so we have to take care of our fitness as professional athletes. Recovery is important whenever we are travelling and playing.”
The test for any older player who wants to retain his place will be fitness, coach Sanjay Bangar has said.
KOHLI ON FITNESS
Kohli puts focus on fitness in perspective.
“The mindset as a cricketer is always to be able to play all formats with equal commitment and intensity. I’ve based my fitness on that. If you want to play all formats and want to be at the top of your game then you have to understand that your physical needs are much larger as well.”
But ex-India skipper Kapil Dev had expressed concern over too much emphasis being laid on fitness, especially how Kohli has gone about it.
“What he (Kapil Dev) says is accurate,” said Kohli. “People can burn out very soon. It is about maintaining a balance. With time, and the amount of cricket you play, you have to be wary of when to rest and how to manage your energy levels and how to take care of your stamina and nutrition.
“Obviously, you can’t move away from the reality of your body and how, when you become older, you need to manage your body. I won’t say you can go at 150% intensity every time you play for 6-7 years in a row. Obviously, you have to slow down at times.”