India’s captain Rohit Sharma inspects the pitch during a practice session ahead of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023’s final against Australia, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Friday, Nov. 17
PTI Photo/Manvender Vashist Lav
Ahmedabad: As the sun beat down on the ‘nets’ at the Narendra Modi Stadium, six Indian players went through the drills ahead of India’s final against Australia.
KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna and R Ashwin were the ones in attendance at the start of the session before they were joined by Rohit Sharma after about thirty minutes, meaning only three members of the playing XI for Sunday’s game were in attendance.
At the ‘nets’, though, the air was calm and practiced without too much chopping and changing or lengthy discussions. It was the lot just going through the motions, but there was a plan in place.
Head coach Rahul Dravid, batting coach Vikram Rathour and bowling coach Paras Mhambrey were all careful observers of the session, and they arrived after spending a fair bit of time studying the pitch for the final.
Dravid, typically, was the first to enter the main ground and he walked right to the pitch. He spent a decent chunk of his time discussing the wicket with the curators before passing on the information to Rathour and then to Rohit and Mhambrey. Rohit walked up to the pitch by himself soon after and gave it a glance before walking off to chat with the staff.
There ended the pitch-reading routine and it was onto the ‘nets’. As the clock neared 5.30 pm, the team returned to the main ground and went through a short fielding session. Dravid, meanwhile, continued to chat with the curators as the lights came on, and the stadium looked about as scary as it always has.
But given what it’s in line to host, a sense of history flooded these saffron chairs as the team donning the saffron jersey called it a day.