Tired minds under the scanner

It’s not quite the instinct to try audacious things high over slips that will bother the Indians, but the other aerial route, the literal flying while criss-crossing the Indian skies that will challenge the minds, nag at the mental fatigue thresholds and in testing times, check the competitive commitment.

If there was ever a time to look back and miss the two-month summer vacations from school days, this was it, after the completion of the 44-day-long IPL.

While Pakistan were part of the jamboree too, their players could be likened to lucky bridesmaids at Indian weddings, enjoying the frolic without having to stress over getting married themselves.

Tired bodies

THE Indian team arrived in Dhaka on a Sunday, waking up early to catch a plane. But like summer holidays, international cricketers can’t stake claims to Sundays either.

Besides the three, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma also played the majority of their teams’ 14 games and were key to their batting-lineups, just as the respective franchises of Piyush Chawla, Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma depended heavily on them.

Contrast that with the picks from Pakistan. Mohammad Yousuf had a free — forced, but free — summer. Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir arrived late, Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik were benched for the most part, while those like Misbah didn’t get all games either. They were there alright, but not under the intense scanner as their Indian mates.

Physio Nitin Patel carries a coffin as big as that of the players, full of sprays and bandages. And he was a busy man on Sunday at the indoor nets, chopping and folding precautionary tapes for Dhoni’s little finger and helping Yuvraj Singh with his knee brace. And though trainer Paddy Upton insisted there were no fitness worries as the 50-50 season took off, he maintained he wasn’t in a position to gauge their mental fitness.

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