Sharmistha Gooptu in Manchester
The first thing that struck me was how closed the stadium looked from the inside – my first visit to the Emirates Old Trafford to cover match day-minus-two practice for the Indian team. Compared to Lord’s, it almost seems a cluttered view if you’re sitting in one of the lower seats. Sitting in the stands under the media centre, and watching the men in blue warm up at an arm’s length, what you noticed in the first few moments was the camaraderie.
Practice started at 9.30 am sharp but Shubman Gill arrived closer to 10, had a brief chat with Sitanshu Kotak, and started stretching. He signalled to one of the team’s support staff who was standing along the boundary chatting with our team member Trisha Ghosal in Bangla. ‘Are you from Kolkata?’ we asked. ‘No, Kolkaghat,’ came the reply.
Before Gill arrived, Ravindra Jadeja had mischievously called out to the same person – throwing forth a popular Bengali expletive that is part of the everyday boy’s parlance, and grinning. Our colleague Rohan Chowdhury too smiled broadly on hearing – ‘Jaddu bhai has lifted my spirits this morning with his Bangla!’ he said. There were also loud calls and jeers, with Arshdeep Singh egging on a teammate with ‘sher da puttar [son of a lion]’.
Jadeja spent a minute examining the ice-box, checking for the drinks available. He clearly didn’t find something he wanted, so he closed the lid and walked off. Then, he and Jasprit Bumrah were seen walking shoulder to shoulder together, again past the drinks box and towards the boundary. Bumrah picked out a bottle of water and threw it to Akash Deep, before grabbing one for himself.
After the loss at Lord’s, the team has had several days to recoup and revisit. Captain and vice-captain, Gill and Rishabh Pant, were seen engaged in a deep chat. The pitch covers were off, it was bright and sunny after yesterday’s rain, and the ground staff were inside with their mowers. The heavy broadcast equipment was seen entering the ground and the team moved into the nets, with only Arshdeep visible around the pitch doing some warm-ups, and a fitness test, with his finger bandaged.
Today will be a three-hour practice session here, and it’s starting to heat up inside the Emirates Old Trafford.
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