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On Wednesday, something new happened at the India nets. At the Wankhede Stadium, they had taken control of four of the square’s fields. Fast bowling gets two points. For spin bowling, two. Two lines, one from the base of the leg stump and one from the base of the off stump, had been drawn on each of them, stretching outward from the batting crease perpendicularly. They hadn’t visited Pune.
When Ravindra Jadeja called for LBW and Washington Sundar got down to sweep the ball, these lines were quite helpful. When he played the shot, Washington maintained his front foot in the same spot, and it did appear to be fairly close to off stump. Rishabh Pant also found them useful.
Having to stop a home series whitewash, which has only ever occurred once, against South Africa in 1999–2000, puts India in a nearly unique position. Additionally, it was evident in the effort they have been making to get ready for the Mumbai Test. The job they had others do even reflected that. According to reports, the Mumbai Cricket Association trucked in 35 net bowlers after receiving a request from the team administration. Many of them appeared to be teenagers or schoolchildren.
Actually, there were quite a few left-arm spinners. It was the most sincere praise Mitchell Santner could have received.
Batters getting stuck on the crease was the cause of many of India’s wickets, especially in Pune. The degree of ambiguity that pitch contributed to may be one explanation for that. A single ball was turned. Another came right on from the same place. Some scooted past at a very modest speed. Additionally, it didn’t seem like there were many choices for run-making at times because New Zealand made sure to target the stumps as frequently as possible.
Denying the bowler easy access to good-length zones is another common tactic used by batsmen on pitches with varied turn. To do this, visiting teams use the sweep shot. In Pune, for instance, New Zealand tried 73 of them at a cost of three wickets. India usually like to use their feet to counter spin, either rushing out to the ball’s pitch or shifting back to take advantage of the crease’s depth. Despite being encouraged to participate, they played 37 sweeps in Pune.
Yashasvi Jaiswal in particular took advantage of every chance to get down on one knee during Mumbai’s training sessions as the Indian hitters concentrated on that. He practiced almost every variant of the shot and its derivative, the scoop. Early in his tenure, Virat Kohli tried and succeeded in reversing Kuldeep Yadav. Jadeja saw it quickly enough to decrease the length and get so much kick off these red-soil deliveries that it struck the hitter in the chest when he went traditional.
India held a massive huddle to start their preparation on Wednesday. This one did seem to go on forever, but that’s very common. A smaller huddle followed, which also seemed to continue on indefinitely. At this point, the horde of net bowlers arrived on the fields, using tape to measure their run-ups.
The players were given a brief respite by the team management, but it seems that they have made the training sessions in Mumbai necessary. Wednesday’s team felt that they had to do everything, starting with the lines painted on the surface.
“I think when India lost the [ODI] World Cup in India, that was a low point in Indian cricket for everyone, for the fans, for the players,” Nayar said, “In the same breath, a couple of months later, they were [T20I] world champions. So, I always feel sometimes low point in a cricketer’s, you know, I forgot the word, but through what a cricketer goes. And then coming back is always a great journey. That’s how stories are made. That’s how legacies are created.”