N ANANTHANARAYANAN

The usually fickle weather in Sri Lanka in July-August was relatively benevolent as the Indian cricket team crushed the hosts to complete their first-ever clean sweep of an away Test series.

With the Sri Lankan team in disarray, the Indian team has firmly stayed focused on finding a new high in terms of fitness ahead of the five-match One-day International series, starting on Sunday with the first game here.

The first series training session for Virat Kohli and Co ahead of their limited-overs series was an intense affair with players waiting out a brief stoppage at the batting nets due to a downpour.

Soon after, the Indian skipper, the fittest player in the squad, took the lead in the team’s new mantra of raising fitness levels in the build-up to the 2019 ICC World Cup in England.

Stripped to their waist, Kohli and KL Rahul were put through the beep test – the original version before the advanced ‘yo-yo’ version was introduced. Both batsmen covered the different distances between markers, making sure they timed their runs in keeping with the beeps.

It severely tested both, and the profusely sweating batsmen kept at it with trainer Shankar Basu monitoring. Soon, MS Dhoni, seniormost player in the squad, started his routine between markers placed adjacent. Dhoni seemed drained by his short routine and then held an intense discussion with Basu.

It is clear that India, ranked