With Champions Trophy in SA just 3 weeks away and cricket in the build-up to be played in sub-continent, facing bouncers was the order of the day
Since India got knocked out of the World Twenty20, the ability of the batsmen against short-pitched bowling has been called into question.
The fact that the top-order perished and looked uncomfortable against West Indies and England gave credence to the theory that the highly talented line-up, minus Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, could be softened up with the rising ball.
While good batsmen haven’t turned mediocre overnight, the bouncer had diminished their aura. Over the past few weeks, those accused of mishandling the short stuff have faced a barrage of questions regarding their ability on foreign wickets that allow the ball to rise without the bowler having to make any visible change in the action.
In one voice, the players have stated that they haven’t experienced sleeplessness worrying about the short-ball. Coach Gary Kirsten felt he observed a problem only in one Twenty20 game.
On Friday, Team India spent a considerable time of their three-hour nets session on dealing with the bouncer. This isn’t the first time that Indian batsmen have been subjected to the rising ball at a camp or during a training session.
But with the Champions Trophy in South Africa just a little over three weeks away and the cricket in the build-up to be played on flat tracks in India and Sri Lanka, these sessions point to the team wanting to address perceived shortcomings that opponents could exploit.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir began the post-lunch session batting against Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh and Praveen Kumar to start off with.
At the second practice nets were rookie bowlers enjoying their chance to bowl against their heroes.
It was after their first round of batting that these frontline batsmen faced the bouncers. The tennis racquet and the bowling machine were put to good use as red and yellow tennis balls were fired into the batsmen.
Dhoni was hit on the helmet grill by a vicious bouncer and the next ball smacked his elbow. Luckily, the red tennis ball fired off a racquet by Kirsten, didn’t cause much harm.
The bowling machine was soon put into service. Its height was adjusted to ensure that the
point of impact was around chest high.
On the adjacent cement wicket, Robin Singh wasn’t allowing wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik and Yuvraj Singh to get on to the front foot.
Rahul Dravid followed by Gautam Gambhir, had their stints against the bowling machine. The art of leaving the ball was on display but ducking and swaying was at times the best option. The pull shot came into play often and at times the ball thudded into the batsman at an uncomfortable height.
All the while Kirsten was at hand. He interrupted the bouncer barrage to have a word with the batsmen before getting back to watching them deal with the short ball.
Kirsten was at hand, late into the session, to sort out any issues Abhishek Nayar and
Dinesh Karthik had against the bowling machine. By the looks of it the short stuff is being given a lot of thought and time.
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