With India down 0-1 in the ODI series, one thought the team would make better use of their practice session. But the Indian team chose to do everything else on the field apart from batting and bowling, says a report in The Times Of India.
“At quarter to noon, the Indian team members arrived at the ground clad in their red practice outfits. The shutterbugs had positioned themselves near the nets expecting the batsmen to have a knock there. But in the hour and a half they were at the ground they didn't go anyway near the nets. Though a game of football has been a part of Indian team's practice regime for the last couple of years, some of the footballing skills of Indian players wouldn't have pleased the small crowd who had managed to sneak into the stadium,” says the report.
"Have they come to play football or cricket? If I wanted to watch their football skills, I would have gone to watch IM Vijayan play," remarked a disgruntled fan.
On the other hand, the likes of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen had a long knock at the nets. The bowlers Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach and Tim Bresnan ran in hard and bowled with purpose.
Meanwhile a report in Deccan Chronicle says, seizing a cliff-hanger on Rajkot’s flat surface has not turned England complacent, instead the visitors were seen toiling hard at the nets ahead of the second ODI even as India played the guessing game by maintaining a low profile in training at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Sunday.
“Even after giving the treatment to Indian slow bowlers in recent times, it appealed to common thinking that the English are still shaping themselves up against spin bowling as the wicket in Kochi is expected to show similar traits as in the first ODI. England spent nearly three hours training at the nets and had at their disposal nearly half-a-dozen spinners and four medium pacers from the Kerala U 19 and U-25 teams,” says the report, adding that Even tail-enders Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn padded up for a rigorous net session.
“The England team had specifically requested for left-arm spinners and right-arm medium pacers and we had quite some quality lads here,” said former Kerala Ranji player Feroze Rasheed, who is in-charge of the net bowlers here.
Meanwhile a report in The Hindu says that the spinners have been wringing their hands in despair the last few weeks as they say the new fielding restrictions in One-Day Internationals have made their life difficult. Especially the rule that allows just four fielders in the outfield during non-Powerplay overs. And the spinners have their captains’ full support. Just hear what some of the leading stars have said recently.
“I have this funny feeling that spinners will not have a role to play in the future,” said Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene. “I am not comfortable with these changes. It’s not the way to go forward.”
“It is becoming more of a batsman's game,” said Darren Sammy of the West Indies. “Teams were scoring 300-plus with five guys outside the circle. Now it is only four. I feel sorry for the spinners, they have to find an extra way to bowl and be economical.”
Even Indian captain M.S. Dhoni has fought for the spinners’ cause. “When ODIs started, a lot of experts felt it won’t be good for spinners, they will stop flighting the ball, I don’t see any good reason why, with five fielders inside the circle all the time, they will be tempted to flight the ball,” he said the other day.
But surprise…surprise…it’s the spinners who are leading the world ODI bowlers’ table after the new fielding restrictions came into play at the end of October! In the 16 matches that have been played from November 1 last year, spinners occupy the top three spots with Bangladesh’s 30-year-old left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak lading with 10 wickets from five matches, followed by West Indies’ off-spinner Sunil Narine and Bangladesh’s 21-year-old Sohag Gazi, both with nine wickets from five matches.