As many as six first-choice players, including Shaheen Shah Afridi and Fakhar Zaman, from Pakistan, opted to skip the training session ahead of the team’s second World Cup 2023 game against Sri Lanka to be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Tuesday.
With New Zealand and the Netherlands playing at Uppal today, HCA (Hyderabad Cricket Association) had arranged for the practice sessions for both teams playing tomorrow at the nearby Gymkhana Cricket Ground at Secunderabad, and like the training sessions in Uppal, this one was also under very tight security.
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Sri Lanka’s practice session was missed by the large contingent of travelling media owing to chaos over entry, and by the time the access was granted, Sri Lanka had finished their practice. For the Pakistan team, a lucky few managed a glimpse of their preparations and the first noticeable thing was the absence of Afridi, Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Imam ul Haq, Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz.
Enquired about the same batting coach Grant Bradburn on whether there are any possible injury concerns in the squad or was an optional session that the said players opted to miss, the New Zealander confirmed that it was only the latter.
“We put full faith in the players to know exactly what they need to do to prepare. And some have chosen to prepare in other ways other than taking more energy out of their bodies today. So, from a coaching point of view, I’m very, very happy with that,” said Bradburn replying to the query by CricketNext.
On to the nets, it was a jovial mood as the Pakistan players arrived at the Gymkhana Ground and a few of them also had a little reunion with Australian Matthew Hayden who was team mentor for the 2022 T20 World Cup. Hayden was on the ground in his official capacity as a host broadcaster and during his spot interviews he sat down with Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan and the trio spent a good amount of time joking around.
All this while, Babar Azam, like a machine, padded up, was on the wicket-taking throw downs and had an extended session in the middle. After hitting 80 and 90 in the warm-up games, the Pakistan skipper was dismissed for a lowly five against the Netherlands and he will have his eyes set to get back in runs against Sri Lanka. During his 45-minute session in the main strip, Azam exclusively faced the leg-spin of travelling reserve Abrar Ahmed. And as usual, looked it sublime touch.
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He employed the sweep shots often and to good effect also, rarely missing out on connecting the shot.
In the adjacent net, with most of the other top-order batters missing, it was Shadab Khan who had the privilege to swing hit bat around and he did that with aplomb taking a local net bowler, a left-arm spinner to the cleaners. The large contingent of police personnel, which accounted for more that the players, coaching staff and even the ground staff, had their fun – with many attempting to catch many of Shadab’s long hits – with little success though.
Mohammad Haris, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf and travelling reserve Zaman Ahmed were busy in the nets area, which once again, was cordoned off from media ‘security concerns’ given as the reason.
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