Down on one knee, Gautam Gambhir asked Gary Kirsten, replaying a deft paddle-sweep, “Should I bring my bat down like this?”

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” acknowledged the Indian coach. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni, watching from the side of the nets, had a slightly different perspective. And thus the three converged for a small debate on the elevation of the bat and to discuss the variants of the sweep shot.

Team India have left their straight bats at Dambulla, and are ready to improvise, using horizontal bat shots on Saturday at the R Premadasa Stadium, the home of slow turn where where the ball doesn’t come on to the bat. The middle overs can inflict serious damage on a team’s total there.

Virender Sehwag, who has recovered completely from the glute injury and will open the innings in the second ODI, will have to make the most of the new ball and the power plays. Watching Sehwag bat at the nets is always entertaining — he talks aloud after each delivery, praising himself for every good shot, kicking himself for playing a poor shot.

“I will get my runs, you just try and bowl some dot balls to me,” he says, before arguing about the imaginary fielder’s position against Kirsten’s throw downs.

Exploring styles

In there training sessions, Team India are expecting the field placing to be unorthodox, and are exploring ways to collect the runs with the softer ball. And so while Sehwag, Raina and Rohit Sharma were practising their sweeps and reverse sweeps, Sachin Tendulkar was attempting the scoop shot.

... contd.