Mumbai, March 3 Two hours into the Indian team's main net session ahead of the T20 World Cup semifinal, Abhishek Sharma walked out to bat with a strong purpose and fond memories of Wankhede Stadium.
It was exactly one year ago that Abhishek had smashed a 54-ball 135 against England, India's opponents for the crucial semifinal on Thursday.
The left-handed batsman ended his drought in the tournament with a 55 against Zimbabwe, but he is still far from his aggressive best.
After spending some time bowling, Abhishek then practiced batting under the watchful eyes of batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.
After Kotak instructed the net bowlers, Abhishek began his session against the spinners. He started with off-spin, considering his struggles against the ball turning away from him.
A leg-spinner also bowled alongside him, and so did Arshdeep Singh. To practice against off-spin, Tilak Varma also bowled for Abhishek after a lengthy batting session.
All 15 squad members attended the session.
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All 15 squad members attended the session that was delayed by an hour due to the lunar eclipse. The players looked in good spirits, and head coach Gautam Gambhir was also present during the warm-up.
The pitch also attracted a lot of attention, as it had a thick covering of grass that would likely be trimmed significantly on match day.
Highlights of the session included a series of yorkers from Arshdeep Singh.
Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya mainly focused on range hitting and batted for more than two hours. Players like Tilak and Ishan Kishan also batted for more than an hour, facing both pace and spin.
Tilak used the slog sweeps against Kuldeep Yadav while clearing the straight boundary off Varun Chakaravarthy.
Lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah preferred a spot bowling session to prepare himself for the big game.
