India’s Ishan Kishan grimaces in pain after getting injured during a practice session (PTI Photo)

Ishan Kishan continued to look in ominous touch during India’s training session on Wednesday before a searing Jasprit Bumrah yorker cut his stint short. Bumrah, operating at full intensity for the second consecutive day, offered encouraging signs for the Indian camp after missing the T20 World Cup opener against the USA. However, Kishan was left in discomfort after being struck on the foot by one of Bumrah’s trademark deliveries. The wicketkeeper-batter limped away from the nets following the blow. Though he briefly returned to resume batting, his session did not last long.

There was more positive news surrounding Bumrah, who appears in line for a return to the playing XI against Namibia. The fixture is expected to serve as preparation for the much-anticipated clash against Pakistan in Colombo on Sunday. “Bumrah is absolutely fine now. He’s doing better. As I said, we still have one more day, so hopefully he’ll be back in the team. If he continues to improve, the team management will take a call, and I think he could be back for the second game,” Tilak Varma said on the eve of the match. Bumrah also participated in catching drills after completing his bowling spell. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson, who has been out of the side due to poor form, could be in contention if Abhishek Sharma fails to recover from a stomach infection. Abhishek was hospitalised after arriving in Delhi but was discharged on Wednesday. “We still have one more day before the game, so hopefully we’ll decide by tomorrow how he feels and then move forward accordingly,” Tilak added. Samson was among the batters who spent quality time in the nets. A fully fit Washington Sundar contributed with both bat and ball, while Suryakumar Yadav stayed back to take numerous selfies with DDCA officials. Kuldeep Yadav and Rinku Singh also obliged fans and officials, making it an evening filled with photographs alongside preparation.

India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav during a training session at Arun Jaitley Stadium, in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)

To cope with the comparatively sluggish pitches in the tournament, especially in Colombo, India want bowlers to up their game & batters to adapt faster…NEW DELHI: India’s pacers and spinners split into two separate nets on either of the centre square here at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday evening. For the next two hours, the bowlers bowled with full intensity, a rare scenario in the middle of a long and important tournament, in which players look to preserve energy for the big moments. The batters’ persistent assault has hogged headlines for over a month. Under the Kotla lights, the spotlight fell firmly on the bowlers going flat out two days out ahead of the game against Namibia here.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Only Abhishek Sharma, still recovering from a stomach illness, didn’t turn up for the rigorous session.The prep, expectedly, was for beyond just the match against Namibia. From the looks of it, the Indian team is carrying out a distinct change in their approach. With the match against Pakistan in Colombo on Feb 15 clearing all administrative and political hurdles late on Monday night, it’s time to put attention to detail. The scare against USA last Saturday notwithstanding, the tournament truly gets underway from Sunday for India. The conditions in Colombo, which have been distinctly different to what India have been playing in recently, are going to consume a lot of mind space.

“We understand the sentiments and the different politics between the two countries. But I think it’s really important for us just to focus on the cricket side of things. It’s going to be a challenge going to Colombo, where Pakistan have been (stationed) for the last two weeks. We are fully focused on bringing our best game to that fixture next week,” India’s straight-talking assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Tuesday.The nature of pitches in the tournament in general has not encouraged big scores so far. The comparatively sluggish pitch at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo, in particular, definitely isn’t going to escape the attention of the Indian think-tank. Hence, there’s this urge to deviate from the all-out-aggressive brand of batting, with the pitches expected to get tired and slower as the tournament progresses.“Judging how the pitches have played in the first five or six days of the tournament, there might be a slight revision in strategy and how we go about that,” Doeschate said.“The pitches haven’t played quite the way we thought yet and again we want to be adaptive. We should have been a lot better than we were in Mumbai (against USA). We have been going all out but with the kind of pitches around, you want a bit of technique,” he added before shifting the focus on the bowling attack.“I don’t think our bowlers have fired yet,” Doeschate said. “It’s maybe a little bit easy to look at the USA game and say that was a really good bowling performance, but you have to analyse it objectively in terms of where we put the ball and how we used the ball. We expect a lot more from the bowlers as well.“Having the world-class bowlers that we have, it does give the batters that freedom to make mistakes in this format. If you’re shooting for 250 all the time, you’re going to make mistakes. But we need to react to situations as well,” Doeshcate said.Washington provides optionsWith Washington Sundar going through his first practice session after recovering from a rib injury he sustained a month ago, the team has started reviewing combinations based on pitch conditions. “You know the luxury of having four allrounders is that you can change the combination. This is where Washington fits in,” Doeschate said.