Indians fine-tune skills at NCA

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More... Indian team likely to train at NCA Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 Bangalore: The Indian team is likely to have a camp at the National Cricket Academy here from September 29 to October 7. The camp will be a lead-up to the first Test against Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on October 9. After the Irani Trophy match at Vadodara from September 24 to 28, the players are expected to assemble here on September 29. Though the BCCI is yet to officially announce the training schedule, the ground-staff here have been told to keep the KSCA ( ground and the practice facilities ready for the camp.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Thats around 10 days. Why cant the Indian team play a couple of 3 day games against Karnataka or India B (India A is busy playing New Zealand A) While the Australians get two practice games, India are not going to play anything during those 10 days. Just do some drills during the day and unwind in some bangalore pub in the evening. This is not ideal preparion guys...

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Indian players begin prep camp ahead of Aussie series India's top cricket players began a week-long preparatory camp ahead of the four-Test match series against Australia starting here on October nine. More... Indian players begin prep camp ahead of Aussie series Bangalore (PTI): India's top cricket players began a week-long preparatory camp ahead of the four-Test match series against Australia starting here on October nine. Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, M S Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, V V S Laxman, Mohammed Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma participated in a mix of warm-up, fielding and catching drills. Pragyan Ojha and Rohit Sharma, who were the other two members of the team that toured Sri Lanka, were not present as they have been picked to play for the Yuvraj Singh-led Board President's XI's match against Australia beginning in Hyderabad on October two. Coach Gary Kirsten, mental and physical trainer and strategic leadership coach Paddy Upton, bowling coach B K Venkatesh Pradesh and fielding coach Robin Singh guided the proceedings which lasted two-and-half-hours at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Tendulkar said the first session went off well. "It feels good. When you come back into the team, you feel certain energy", the ace batsman who missed the Irani Trophy last week said. An elbow injury during the third Test against Sri Lanka last month had forced him out of the subsequent one-day series. "It's mainly fitness targeting session. I thoroughly enjoyed it (first day of the camp)", he added. Meanwhile, the Indian cricket squad for the first two Tests against Ricky Ponting's side would be selected on October one.

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Getting ready for the big series AUSTRALIA skipper Ricky Ponting said Tuesday his team will try their best to make Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar struggle for his world record in the upcoming Test series. More... Getting ready for the big series Principal Correspondent — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash FINE-TUNING: V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid sharpening their fielding skills at the preparatory camp in Bangalore on Monday. BANGALORE: A clutch of Indian cricketers, led by Test skipper Anil Kumble, began their preparatory camp at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday morning. The camp is a prelude to the series against Australia which starts here on October 9. The support staff of coach Gary Kirsten, mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, fielding coach Robin Singh and physio Nitin Patel kept a close watch as 13 players assembled at the stadium for the camp that will be held till October 4. Monday’s outing was restricted to fitness and fielding drills that stretched past noon. The players — Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Virender Sehwag, M.S. Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Kaif, Gautam Gambhir, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma — started out with a warm-up game akin to frisbee and then switched over to shuttle runs in batches. Kirsten, Prasad and Robin then conducted fielding drills with emphasis on fielding in the close-cordon and in the deep. Sharp low catches and quick returns just above the stumps were drills that were repeated. Minor scare There was a scare when Kirsten slashed and the edge flew quick and grazed Dravid’s nose. Dravid flinched but quickly got back to the routine of fine-tuning his slip catching. The players will have a round of nets on Tuesday.

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Indians fine-tune skills at NCA With the players split into four nets and batsmen toying with the options of junior State bowlers, Indian bowlers, Kirsten’s tennis serves and a bowling machine, the mood was set for fine-tuning skills that are critical in the run-up to the Test series against the visiting Aussies. More... Indians fine-tune skills Principal Correspondent Wednesday, Oct 01, 2008 — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash NEW ROUTINE: India coach Gary Kirsten serves to Rahul Dravid in order to re-calibrate his reaction time to the speed of a tennis ball. Bangalore: Coach Gary Kirsten lobbing up a red-coloured tennis ball and quickly slamming the racquet on it to send it careening towards Rahul Dravid was an interesting sidelight as the preparatory camp made steady progress at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday. With the players split into four nets and batsmen toying with the options of junior State bowlers, Indian bowlers, Kirsten’s tennis serves and a bowling machine, the mood was set for fine-tuning skills that are critical in the run-up to the Test series against the visiting Aussies. Setting the tempo The day’s tempo was set when Sehwag patted back Munaf Patel’s delivery and cricket ruled though the spat between the two at the recent Irani Trophy match served as a dramatic backdrop. Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and even bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad turned their arm over as Sehwag and Dravid shared first strike. Dravid then moved to the third net and as Kirsten swivelled back and started serving hard from the bowling crease, all eyes were glued to a new routine that was obviously aimed at re-calibrating a batsman’s reaction time to the speed of a tennis ball. Kirsten slammed hard and his serves were relentless as Dravid coped with them, with technical exactitude being his watchword. Meanwhile, Sehwag squared up to the bowling machine in the adjoining net and spanked a few with ‘watch it’ ringing aloud from scampering fielders. Kirsten then discarded the racquet and started pelting the ball hard from about 18 yards and Dravid mixed watchful eyes with soft hands. V.V.S. Laxman and Mohammad Kaif then had their stints in all the nets with Kirsten repeating his tennis-serves and also spending time working on Laxman’s footwork. Later, the second batch of Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma and R.P. Singh attended the nets while the first batch had a session with mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton. Meanwhile, Kumble also had a long hard look at the pitch being prepared for the first Test here from October 9 and had a chat with chief curator Narayan Raju and New Zealand curator Phillips who is working on the turf’s drainage system.

[Lord]

interesting

[Desi Cartman]

we need Sania Mirza to help our boyz train :--D

[Lord]

we need Sania Mirza to help our boyz train :--D

that wont help, we want our players to look at the ball, not the balls:haha::hysterical:

[amit467]

that wont help' date=' we want our players to look at the ball, not the balls:haha::hysterical:[/quote'] :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

[h4te]

that wont help' date=' we want our players to look at the ball, not the balls:haha::hysterical:[/quote'] i like balls :alienbooty::elefant: (no homo)

[msb1991]

I really like the centralisation toward the NCA and think that it is one of the successes of the recent BCCI. The fact that money can be poured entirely into this one institution is an example of good efficiency.

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Kirsten pleased with pre-series camp India's five-day pre-series camp at the Chinnaswamy Stadium ended with another open-wicket session and fielding drills. Over the past five days, they have given one day exclusively to fitness and fielding, two days to batting and bowling in the nets, and two to open-wicket practices. More... Australia in India 2008-09 Kirsten pleased with pre-series camp Sidharth Monga in Bangalore October 3, 2008 Gary Kirsten: "I am certainly not looking at the [india A v New Zealand A] game too closely, because I know it will be a different Australian team that will walk in and play Test cricket." © AFP India's five-day pre-series camp at the Chinnaswamy Stadium ended with another open-wicket session and fielding drills. Over the past five days, they have given one day exclusively to fitness and fielding, two days to batting and bowling in the nets, and two to open-wicket practices. On the last day of the camp, they got extra bowling help in L Balaji, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh and a few Karnataka bowlers. The team will reassemble on Monday in Bangalore. In between, they also found time to take their minds off the training. "We got a nice five days of work, and we used the maximum possible time for the preparation," Gary Kirsten, India's coach, said. "Yesterday we tried to get away from cricket for a while, and had a bit of fun along with a team-building exercise." The team-building exercise happened, of course, without Sourav Ganguly and RP Singh. Ganguly was a late addition to the team, and has hence missed the camp completely. RP missed the last two days, as he joined Ganguly in Chennai for the second Test between India A and New Zealand A. Another absentee for the last two days has been Virender Sehwag, who is down with a sore throat, Kirsten said. The most interesting part of the camp has been that the training hasn't always looked like a chore. Nets didn't go on for two days in a row; the players always came out to practise in batches of seven and six; and there was the team-building session. "We have tried to break the tedium of training by doing different things." Kirsten was happy that he could get most of the team together for a considerable period of time before the important series against Australia. "This is probably the first time we got so much time in the lead-up to the series," Kirsten said. "We could really prepare well, and we are looking forward to the Tests. The camp gave us time because when we are playing constantly we try to squeeze in some time for individual players between playing time." One of the positives to have come out from the camp is the kind of rhythm Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel have hit. They have looked menacing everyday, and have managed to trouble all the batsmen in the Indian team. "It's great to have some intensity and to have back-up," Kirsten said. "Munaf has stepped up to the plate in the last couple of months, Ishant has been bowling well for a number of months now, and Zaheer has performed really well." The way they have bowled in the camp has been enough to at least make the management think of going with three seamers on Indian pitches. "Yeah we have thought about it," Kirsten said. "We have thought about options like picking an extra seamer, but the thing is the team is pretty stable at the moment for many years and there is no specific reason to change that." The team's "stability", though, has been under constant threat leading up to the series, with Ganguly just scraping into the team and the other seniors apparently being put on notice. Kirsten wanted to look beyond selectorial matters. "Instead of focusing on individuals who are picked to play for India, we need to focus on the team and get on with the Test series." While the Indian Test team was training in Bangalore, the Board President's XI has given the Australians a harsh welcome in their opening first-class game of the tour. Kirsten, though, knows better than to draw comfort from the Australians' discomfort in Hyderabad. "I am certainly not looking at the game too closely," he said, "because I know it will be a different Australian team that will walk in and play Test cricket."

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Kirsten warns team against distraction Coach Gary Kirsten told India's squad to distance themselves from the controversy surrounding five senior players ahead of the start of the Test series against Australia. More... Kirsten warns team against distraction October 04, 2008 09:43 IST Coach Gary Kirsten told India's squad to distance themselves from the controversy surrounding five senior players ahead of the start of the Test series against Australia [images] next week. The countdown for the four-Test series starting in Bangalore on Thursday has been overshadowed by news the Indian board has drawn up retirement plans for five veterans including captain Anil Kumble [images] and record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar [images]. A board official said on Wednesday that Kumble, Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly [images], Rahul Dravid [images] and Vangipurappu Laxman, all well into their 30s, had been told to plan their retirements by December. "I think we should move on from that," South African Kirsten told a news conference on Friday. "We need to focus on the team and get on with the Test series. "India have got the best record against Australia and we have got a good idea of what we need to do, game-wise as well as mentally." World number ones Australia won a four-Test series 2-1 four years ago to record their first series victory on Indian soil in 35 years but are rebuilding after several high-profile retirements. SPIN THREAT Kirsten expects spin to pose a serious threat to the visitors but said the hosts were capable of winning in all conditions. "It feels good to have two spinners who have got so many wickets in our team and that is certainly something that works in our favour," he said. India named leg-break bowler Amit Mishra as a third specialist spinner in the squad for the first two tests as back up for Kumble and Harbhajan Singh [images]. Leg-spinner Kumble is the world's third highest wicket taker and architect of several victories. Off-spinner Harbhajan, who took 32 wickets in the 2-1 victory over Australia in 2001, needs nine more scalps to reach 300 in tests.