The Board of Control for Cricket in India is preparing to start training programme for national team players. Prevention of injuries will be a bigger challenge as players return to the field for the first time in two months since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in the last week of March.
Indian national team fielding coach R Sridhar has revealed that a four-phased training module will be adopted to prepare the elite Indian cricketers for attaining peak match fitness over four to six weeks of training.
Sridhar, who has been associated with the Indian team for six years now, in an interview with national news agency PTI has revealed that how Virat Kohli and Co will train to regain their desired physical and match fitness for the rigours of international cricket when the ball starts rolling again amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think if you have a camp for 4-6 weeks, we can bring them to peak match readiness…fast bowler needs around 6 weeks, batsmen might take a bit less time,” Sridhar is reported as saying. “Once we get a date (on start of national camp) from the BCCI and approved by the government of India, we can start working backwards (starting from scratch). The challenge is to proceed in right phases as players can get excited when they play after 14 or 15 weeks.
“It’s pertinent that we move in right manner forward. Don’t want to look too much ahead,” he explained. “Initially, we have to give them progressive workload. You can’t have a sudden spike in workload which could lead to injuries,” said the former Hyderabad left-arm spinner.
The training will start with the “low volume-low intensity” training in the first phase, with gradually improving to “moderate volume-low intensity”, “high volume-moderate intensity” and eventually to the “high volume-high intensity” modules, revealed the coach.
Elaborating further, he revealed that may be the fast bowlers will start with two overs from half or quarter run-up. The deliveries will be bowled at 20 or 30 percent intensity. For a fielder, it will be at the maximum, six throws over 10 metres or 6 throws over 20 metres at 40 to 50 per cent intensity.
For the batsmen, it will start with five to six minutes of batting against moderate pace bowling. Similarly, catching practice will start with semi-soft balls.