As I'm trying to get myself in shape for the corporate cricket season back in Delhi -- a series of gruelling 25-over tournaments lined up over weekends as the spring turns into summer -- watching Sachin Tendulkar exercising in the gym is both enthralling and educative. Not just his rigour during cardio drills and weight training, even his fascination in finding the right music on his iPod is obsessive.

But while Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan all work on the cross trainer regularly, I haven't seen Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the gym at all. They belong to the tribe called "natural cricketers", match fit even if not gym fit, blessed with a physique and power that doesn't rely on dumbells.

Gambhir is famous for his sudden drain of energy at the nets after batting, and Ishant Sharma happily enacts his friend's body language for a laugh. But Gambhir is somehow a livewire on the field, with a strong throwing arm, while Dhoni and Sehwag can still deposit the ball into the stands with consummate ease.

Even as batsmen, there are cricketers such as Yuvraj and Sehwag who can pick their bats after a week and start whacking the ball around. And then there are players such as Raina. "He will die if he doesn't bat at least one ball in a day," one of the Team India players jokes about Raina as he rigorously goes through the throw-down routines before each match. Among the bowlers, Zaheer and Ishant go through just two spells each at the nets while Pragyan Ohja bowls for hours even the day before the match to keep his rhythm going.

... contd.