Team India skipper Virat Kohli, chief coach Ravi Shastri and mentor Mahendra Singh Dhoni discussed strategies at the end of Tuesday's optional training session, at the ICC Academy in Dubai, in preparation for Wednesday’s T20 World Cup Super 12s match against Afghanistan in in Abu Dhabi.
The meeting was followed by another round of discussion between Kohli and Dhoni before the team wrapped it for the day.
Having suffered back-to-back defeats in their first two games, India must bounce back with a thumping victory against Afghanistan on Wednesday to keep their slim hopes alive at the T20 World Cup.
Interestingly, Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav were earlier engaged in a long chat after they finished training, while Dhoni was busy chatting with Shastri as they watched the batters fine-tune their skills in the nets.
Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma were the first to hit the nets as the frontline pacers like Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami gave the session a miss in order to recover for Wednesday’s game.
The presence of up-and-coming batter Suryakumar in training was good news for the India. Having missed the match against New Zealand on Sunday due to back spasms, he returned to training session and started off with a light jogging session.
He followed it up with some fitness drills under the watchful eyes of assistant strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai. Physio Nitin Patel and strength and conditioning coach Nick Webb made Suryakumar go through his paces.
While the batting department had almost all the big names present, Rishabh Pant and K L Rahul gave the session a miss.
In the bowling department, the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur were present, as was Rahul Chahar.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who in all probability will be sitting out of the Afghanistan match, also skipped the session.
