Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Thousands come to watch Indians practise; Rohit Sharma puts in extra time at the nets | Cricket News

“They told me it will be busy, but this busy, huh!” The elderly lady at the entrance of the Adelaide Oval says with a smile.Around her, utter chaotic joy prevails as at least 3,000 fans storm through just to see the Indian team practise. Dhol beats, cries of ‘jeetega bhai jeetega’, ‘Kohli Kohli’ and ‘Rohit Rohit’ ring in the air.
It was an open session for fans to watch the Australian and Indian teams training. There were hardly any people to watch the Australians train in the afternoon but around 5 pm, they blew in like a storm to see the Indians, shocking the lady at the gate.
Around 6 pm – the Indians had a long training session that started even before 5 pm and ended nearly three-and-a-half hours later – a group of at least 20 Australian schoolkids in uniform ran in to see them. There was no such group for the Australians training. They weren’t kids of Indian origin either, such is the attraction of this Indian team Down Under.
The official training was supposed to start at 5:30 pm local time, and it did, but two Indians were at nets an hour earlier: captain Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant, who hit the batting nets straightaway, before the crowd came in.
Around 6 pm – the Indians had a long training session that started even before 5 pm and ended nearly three-and-a-half hours later – a group of at least 20 Australian schoolkids in uniform ran in to see them. (Photos: Sriram Veera)
Rohit’s training in particular was interesting.“Yaar, gaddha hai idhar! (There is a hole/dent)” he said about an area of the ground at the popping crease of the first net he went into bat. There are four nets at the Adelaide Oval, and he chose to carry on in that particular one as it didn’t upset his rhythm.
The skipper stood carefully, his back leg cutting the popping crease line. The dent was particularly bad just behind the crease. Even as a support staff suggested rather naively that he could perhaps stand a touch ahead, Rohit replied, “arre! I want to stand here”.
And so he stood, back leg on the crease line. His first movement was opening that front leg that pressed forward at an angle towards the bowler. Rohit has a rather visible twitch of both feet as the bowler is about to enter the delivery stride, his knees flexing, and the front foot opening out a touch. This was his main focus in the nets. He was seen discussing with assant coach Abhishek Nayar if he was getting the stance and movement right.
In his first stint, before the other players came, Rohit faced new shiny balls. Does that mean he might yet open the innings in the Adelaide Test or was it to just ensure that he faced deliveries that seamed a bit – as new balls tend to do. Once the rest of the team joined him at the batting nets after warm-up and catching practice, he faced old balls.
Possible pointers
In each of the four nets, two batsmen were together. If the pairings are anything to go , Rohit was paired with Pant. One batsman facing a few balls, and another at the non-striker’s end. KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal; Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill; Rohit and Pant; Washington Sundar and Nitish Reddy. That indicates Jaiswal and Rahul as the openers, Gill and Kohli the no.3 and no.4 respectively and so on.
But all that’s speculation. Either way, suffice to say Indians practised long, hard, and rather intensely, with at least 3,000 people hollering around them.
Incidentally, head coach Gautam Gambhir, who had gone to India after the Perth Test and missed the warm-up game in Canberra, was back and stood behind the stumps at one of the four nets. Arms crossed, face as intense as ever, he was almost motionless watching proceedings. Now and then, when Rohit was between his stints from one net to another, they would have a short chat, but for the main part, Gambhir stood there like a statue, observing everything quietly. Just like the statue of Clem Hill, who played in the early 1900s, that stands outside the arena, near the road across the river that shimmered in the afternoon sun.
Inside though, the Indians, and for that matter Australians, were smashing the ball. Even Marnus Labuschagne, who has been under fire for batting without intent in the middle. At the nets in the afternoon, he was making an obvious effort to play shots. In Perth, he was trying to defend or leave- even in the nets – in Adelaide, he was more intent on hitting.
The pink ball’s effect on cricketers is rather fascinating. Never mind Labuschagne, who probably has his own poor form to overcome, the general feeling among batsmen about the pink ball is that it doesn’t do much under sun in the afternoon, but can unleash trickery under lights. And so, it’s better to try and score as many runs as possible before it unleashes its devilry on them.

The last word, however, goes to that security lady.
“How many people turn up for nets for the Indians in your country?!” Oh, it’s not open to the public there. And she goes, “Makes sense, I can see 10,000 landing up. How will people like me manage, then?!”