Pandya speaks to himself, says 'Hardik, agar maarna hai toh...'; Rana's risk so big that Pant, Nayar tell him to...
India's preparations for the Champions Trophy are in full swing with players turning up for the first full-fledged net session.
The Indian cricket team reached Dubai on Saturday and hit the ground running ahead of their first ICC 2025 Champions Trophy match against Bangladesh on Thursday. For the first time since their 3-0 whitewash of England last week, the entire Indian team was seen in full flow at Dubai's ICC academy. The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh and others hit the nets, as did the coaching staff comprising Gautam Gambhir, Sitanshu Kotak and Abhishek Nayar. The mood in the Indian camp hit a fever pitch, with players looking relaxed and in the best spirits, smiling, laughing, cracking jokes and, of course, undergoing the drills assigned to them.
Unlike the mood in Australia, the atmosphere here was vibrant as the players went about their business. Rohit told one of the players, "Time the ball. If you beat that cover fielder, it's a boundary". The camera then switched to a frame that captured Kohli, Gambhir and Kotak's smiles before Hardik Pandya was seen saying something to Ravindra Jadeja in Gujarati. Rohit then took command of a catching session, hitting the tennis ball in the air with a racquet. The purpose of this drill seemed to prepare players to align themselves in case the ball changed its trajectory – a player with his helmet on tapped the ball with his head before Virat Kohli took the catch.
The scenes then turned to Nayar, who dictated the usage of nets. "There are three nets in the centre. Post whatever you have done; if you want to do something extra work, you've got two nets out back; you can get some working there." As the directives were laid out, Rohit and Kohli strode out to the nets and warmed up, playing a few strokes. Shami and Arshdeep bent their backs and grunted intensely just as they released the ball.
Hardik Pandya's pep talk to himself
The frame then switched to Pandya, who seemed to have mistimed the ball. Unhappy with it, Hardik gave a small pep talk to himself, "Hardik, yeh bat ke neeche hai. Agar maarna hai toh maar ke ja" (This one hit the bottom part of the bat. If you want to hit it, hit it well,". Kohli, who batted adjacent to Gill, told the youngster. "Enjoy this process". Hardik dished out some batting tips to Washington Sundar, something about transferring his body weight. "Slightly centre going forward," he said.
The cameras then captured probably the shot of the day, coming from the bat of none other than Harshit Rana, who really tucked into a delivery. The distance on it was so much that even Rishabh Pant couldn't resist but appreciate it with a "Shot hai" applause. However, Rana's aggression didn't please Nayar, who asked him to cut down on it. Pant, being his playful character, immediately agreed with his coach and did a U-turn on Rana. "Let it be," he said.
Three days after their clash against Bangladesh, India take on Pakistan in what could arguably be the match of the tournament. The last time these two teams played an ICC game in Dubai, Pakistan hammered India by 10 wickets in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
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