India is in Manchester for the fourth Test against England, starting from July 23.
Manchester United hosted the India cricket team at Carrington on Sunday, as part of "an epic crossover" between two of the world's most popular sports teams.
India's players and staff are in town ahead of the crucial fourth Test against England, which begins on Wednesday at Emirates Old Trafford, with their counterparts from United meeting at Carrington.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) described it as "an epic crossover" in a post on social media, which showed their players and the hosts interacting in shirts with personalized names.
“It’s very exciting to be able to meet top athletes in the world from another sport, and to get to know their stories is very inspiring. You’re playing two different sports, but the mindset that you play with is most of the time very similar,” Shubman Gill said in the video.
Gill spoke with United skipper Bruno Fernandes about their respective roles, while head coach Gautam Gambhir chatted to counterpart Ruben Amorim.
“It was a nice interaction – what his ideology is towards team sport, and what my ideology is towards team sport. The basic foundation of a team sport is very similar, where I feel that I think it’s the players that adapt to what the team needs, rather than the team that adapts to a certain individual. That is the culture which we want to build,” Gambhir said.
Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav seemed to appreciate the experience and questioned Amorim about his strategy for the upcoming season.
“I was looking forward to talking to Ruben. I’ve been following him from Sporting. I asked him a few questions about the tactics, whether they’re going to stick with the 3-4-3 this season. I had a chance to chat to Casemiro about how I admire him as a player and, yeah, it was very nice,” Yadav said.
India arrived in Manchester trailing England 2-1 in the five-Test series.