New York, May 29: It may be the final World Cup hurrah for a few senior Indian players. So, Team India would be eager to give a memorable farewell to their legends, who have been representing the national team in a number of ICC World Cups.
That is most probably the mindset of Indian players in New York, before their first warm-up game against Bangladesh on June 1. They had their first ground session, here on Wednesday.
Soham Desai, strength and conditioning coach led the Indian team's light running session with some fun activities. However, the team opted out of any cricket practices as they chose to adapt to the timing zone of the USA.
“We didn’t have any practice session today as the motive of the ground session was to make the body adapt to the timing zones. The key thing playing in away condition is to prepare your body and be mentally prepared for the challenges, so that is what we are developing for now,” said Soham Desai to BCCI.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and travelling substitutes Shubman Gill and Khaleel Ahmed were involved in the activity.
India is set to play their only warm-up game against Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on June 1.
India's ICC Men's T20 World Cup campaign begins on June 5 against Group A opponents Ireland in New York, followed by a highly-anticipated clash against Pakistan on June 9
India will then face co-hosts USA on June 12 in New York, before going to Florida to take on Canada on June 15 to wrap up their Group A league matches.
India won the inaugural winners of the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2007 and are aiming to claim the silverware for just the second time through the upcoming tournament.
But it is indeed too early to presume India can win their second ICC Men's T20 World Cup trophy this time, though experts rate them title favourites. (With IANS support)
