Each IPL franchise goes on with different plans to bring in their players back to their normal best before the tournament commences.
To beat the six-months hiatus, players of IPL franchises are getting involved in productive sessions that are very well planned by the coaching brains. Fitness isn’t going to be a matter for most players as they would have used the quarantine to improve the fitness level. What they lack are their on-field cricket drills. Their cricketing muscles might be rusty without any competitive practice session during the lockdown period.
So, to throw up the rustiness, each team follows a different culture, and they have separate boxes to tick before the start of the tournament.
Kolkata Knight Riders, after getting some basic comeback to their skill sets, got into open nets session, and it has become a new routine for them in the early evenings at the Sheikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium Academy in Abu Dhabi.
“Feels great to be back in the middle, doing what we do best! It’s been a challenging period of quarantine for the Knights, but we all know how important it was for everyone’s well-being,” tweeted by the Knights’ official account.
Whereas Mumbai Indians under Mahela Jayawardene gets separated into two groups, and they have the usual practice routine under the lights at the same venue, Abu Dhabi.
RCBians are getting high with different approaches. Their official social media team has this duty now to promote their daily practice sessions. From that, one thing is clear, that is the skipper doesn’t want to get into too much pushing but needs the best from his blokes.
“If we feel like that the workload is being high initially, we can communicate, but I want quality when we do lesser work. I don’t want guys running around for 2-2.5 hours and then feeling tired. Let’s reduce the workload but let’s do it with efficiency. I want to see the intensity in our practice sessions.”
In the similar vein, KXIP had played some warm-up games under the lights at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. With the technically sound coaching group, the shers of Punjab looks fine except the presence of Glenn Maxwell, who is in England right now.
While the RR misses out their key players who are currently playing in England, the young guns under Sanju Samson are sweating hard in their regular net sessions.
Ricky Ponting stands aside the nets to craft his DC batters while the bowlers fulfill the expectations of their bowling coach, Ryan Harris.
With Dubai as the base camp, CSK is the late entry to the on-field practices. The Chennai team is slowly getting into the route to the tournament, and it will get its speed with the two integral Proteas players (Faf Du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi) joining the training camp this week.
As the tournament is getting closer, the intensity from the franchises is also getting higher. A high-octane entertainment awaits. So let’s wait to catch the action.
