KL Rahul appeared destined for a solo exercise during the first couple of hours of India’s nets on Friday (August 25). The 31-year-old player was taken through his paces by the team’s conditioning instructors while wearing a fitness-tracking vest. While Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill strolled out to bat for their simulation exercise against Mohammed Siraj and left-armer Yash Dayal, he began with stretches and a few shuttle sprints.
BCCI announced Rahul’s conditional return from a prolonged injury absence by including him in the Asia Cup squad. While Shreyas Iyer, who was also returning from a lengthy injury, padded up and awaited his turn to bat with Virat Kohli, Rahul continued his intensive fitness regimen. A recent setback for the Karnataka batsman during his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy was an injury.
Eventually, two hours into India’s morning session at the Platinum Oval in Alur, Rahul trudged out to bat with the No. 5 incumbent in the format, Suryakumar Yadav. India elected to send out pairs based on the anticipated batting order, with Kohli and Iyer following Rohit and Gill to complete the top four.
Rahul’s innings began with a thick outside edge to third man, but he soon regained his composure and displayed no distress when facing seam bowlers Shardul Thakur and Akash Deep. The session of Rahul was closely monitored by his captain Rohit Sharma and the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar. While there were no surges between the wickets, Rahul was decisive with his technique and shot selection, on multiple occasions flicking Shardul through and over midwicket. When the spinners, Axar Patel and Mayank Markande, were introduced, Rahul drew from his arsenal additional strokes, including two sweeps and a reverse sweep against the left-arm spinner.
Ishan Kishan, the incumbent wicketkeeper in India’s XI, conducted keeping exercises with fielding instructor T Dilip not far from where Rahul was logging miles on his legs. Before the squad separated for lunch, Rahul’s batting session concluded with a conversation with head coach Rahul Dravid and batting coach Vikram Rathour.
Throughout the session, the openers faced pacers with the new ball before consolidating against the spin duo of Rahul Chahar and Ravindra Jadeja. Iyer was even targeted with short deliveries by Mohammed Shami and Dayal, who also bowled at Kohli and Iyer. Even though he was making his own revival, the right-hander handled the fastballs with ease and displayed no signs of fatigue. A concerted effort was made to exercise against specific bowling varieties, particularly left-arm fast bowling (Dayal) and wrist spin (Chahar and Markande).
The aptitude course in India will continue for the next four days.
Fitness in focus on Day 1 (August 24, Thursday)
On the first day of training camp, players and staff members focused on fitness exercises and routines. The support personnel conducted a fitness evaluation, but Rahul and Iyer were not included. The remaining players, excluding those who participated in the recently concluded Ireland series, were subjected to a fitness evaluation, primarily the Yo-Yo test.
Although specific parameters were not disclosed, it is believed that the majority of participants passed the Yo-Yo test with respectable scores. Virat Kohli disclosed his personal score of 17.2, but the scores of the other competitors are currently unknown. According to sources from the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), everyone’s scores were satisfactory.
Rahul and Iyer will purportedly take the Yo-Yo test later, along with those returning from Dublin, including Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Tilak Varma, and Sanju Samson, who are anticipated to join the camp within the next two days.
