Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, cricket is being played in a bio-secure bubble with everybody associated with the series and tournament undergoing several checks for the virus.
Players and support staff are only shuffling between their team hotels and the cricket stadiums for outdoor practice sessions and games. Nobody is allowed to break the bubble and travel around due to the Coronavirus threat.
It certainly can be mentally challenging but for India head coach Ravi Shastri, the last few months have created stronger bonds among players along with a lot of conversations around.
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Indian cricketers have been experiencing bubble life since August last year when they had gathered in UAE for the IPL 2020. It was followed by the tour Down Under and England’s tour to India.
“There is no choice, there are restricted team areas, so you can’t go out, meet anyone and the same exists now,” Shastri said at a virtual press conference, a day after India thrashed England by an innings and 25 runs in the fourth Test to clinch the series 3-1.
“So if you want to get out of the room, go into a team area, where you meet other players, so what it’s done basically is, it has made players meet each other more often after playing hours.
“….and when you meet more often, somewhere down the line there will be conversations regarding the game, which used to happen in our time. Like when you finished the game, you would still be sitting the dressing room a good hour after the game, talking cricket,” he added.
The chief coach also highlighted that the bubble made the players understand each other better and open up about their personal issues.
“So, I think the best thing that has happened is talking cricket amongst the team members and they had no choice, so they were forced to do it and that’s been a big help,” he said.
“They have gotten to understand each others’ background, mental state, where they come from, where they are in life, settled, unsettled.”
According to Shastri, time spent together in the bio-bubble helped the players develop a mutual trust and bonding.
“It allowed them to open themselves to their colleagues a lot more, discuss personal issues, you know more freely, win more trust from the team members, a lot of positives like you mentioned because of this bubble,” he said.
Empathy is another thing he feels that one needs to have in these difficult times.
“You had to be patient more than anything else. We started with two losses in Australia in ODIs. In normal circumstances, you can get straight to the point. You can be aggressive, you can make the most painful point with an individual and he’ll pull up his socks,” added 58-year-old Shastri.
But Shastri knew where they came from after being in COVID-induced lockdown for six months.
“But I had made up my mind with my team management that we’re going to show empathy because for six months, a lot of the guys had not got out of their flats. No one lives in farms in India, some do, some don’t.”
It was up to him to make sure the freedom that they got and how it was to be given.
” I knew very clearly that it’ll take time. Now how much time do I be patient, that was my goal.
“….and it didn’t take long, because we were a week/10 days, two weeks quarantined, another week, two losses, three weeks, by the time the boys trained a bit and I knew we needed one result our way for things to turn around, because of the work we had done last four-five years as an Indian cricket team,” he stressed.
(With PTI inputs)
