Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie has been making the most of the ongoing break due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, as the cricketer is giving batting lessons including tips on how to play spin in India to young and emerging cricketers in their own homes amid the Coronavirus lockdown.
The 29-year-old is providing a "virtual batting masterclasses" to the Ireland cricketers, taking a 45-minute interactive session with 19 members from the men's senior side and emerging squads of an academy along with a few coaches.
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Balbirnie was quoted as saying by the BBC, “I felt if I could help them by providing an insight into what my thinking was in certain scenarios, that might be of value. I haven’t done too many ‘virtual’ sessions, but it was very interesting.”
The captain also revealed they discussed a number of topics including how to play in the difficult spin conditions in the subcontinent, adding: “Playing in subcontinent conditions is a big part of any international cricketer’s career, so we talked about how to go about setting up an innings, particularly in testing conditions like India where spin plays such a huge part.”
Balbirnie signed off by saying, “Our performance analyst Jay Shelat was able to integrate footage from my unbeaten century against Afghanistan last year into the session, which was very useful as the guys could actually see what I was doing while I was explaining to them my approach and reasoning around certain decisions I made.”
Noteworthy, Ireland’s tour of Zimbabwe and a seven-match series against Bangladesh in May have been postponed due to the ongoing pandemic, while the New Zealand series is also in doubt.
(With BBC Inputs)
