Team sport is a lot about the chemistry and bonding that the players share, the understanding of each others' strengths and weaknesses on the field and off it and taking forward strides with high levels synchronisation. Building a good team is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle - unless all the pieces are in place, there is no real meaning to the big picture.
The camaraderie, in the India's Under-19 camp, is on the rise and there is bromance in the air as Ishan Kishan's boys move into the last four of the World Cup. This boisterous lot have not been together for very long but relationships have been forged and trust has been built, with a lot credit going to a pre-World Cup boot camp, initiated by Rahul Dravid, the team's head coach.
Ahead of the tournament, the Indian squad along-with their support staff including Dravid and Paras Mhambrey, the bowling coach, made a visit to Ramanagaram, a village in Karnataka. The players indulged in team-building exercises and got a chance to learn a lot more about each other and also did a bit of rappelling, rock climbing and mountain-hiking in preparation for the arduous task of playing in a World Cup.
"The bonding has been helping us a lot. All teams play together for a long time and they get to practice a lot. It's not like that with us. Other teams got five-odd tours but we had only two. Boot camp was very helpful because you develop a kind of camaraderie with each other and trust each other while carrying out tasks. Those things are helping us now and taking care of each other, thinking about others' problems," Kishan said, in a post-match press conference on Saturday (February 6), after India outclassed Namibia and stormed into the semis.
India have been fairly comfortable in recording five wins in five since arriving in Bangladesh. Over the course of its victories, the team has started to show promise in each department of the game and move slowly but steadily towards being a well-oiled unit. While their on-field acumen has been top-notch, Kishan believes there's scope to improve the team's mental aspect of the game as the margin of error is expected to narrow down to nearly-negligible from hereon. "Our batting is going well, fielding has been very good with single-handed catches and direct hits. The only area we want to improve on is mental toughness. We need to be mentally strong and not buckle under the pressure that it's a semi-final," he said.
The Indian skipper acknowledged the weight of expectation his team will carry forward, being two wins away from following the laurels of Mohammad Kaif (2000), Virat Kohli (2008) and Unmukt Chand (2012) to lift the Under-19 World Cup.
"It can happen in a World Cup semi-final since it's a big match, there are expectations since a lot of people are watching you on TV. We want to be as tough as possible and not care much about the result. We are not lacking in mental toughness," he explained.
For the first time in the tournament on Saturday, the Indian pacers did not get an early breakthrough. After the batsmen posted a humongous total of 349 for 6, the pace duo of Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed went for a few runs early on as the Namibian openers saw right through their short-ball theory and unleashed pull shots with good success. The start was breezy at best and one got a sense that Namibia weren't going to go down without a fight. Kishan feels his team did well not to panic in that situation."We don't want to panic which was good today also because they were off to a good start but we didn't panic," he said.
As the pressure of going all the way has started to mount, some of the Indian players also have the tough job of keeping their focus intact. On the day they confirmed their semifinal berth, four of their players also earned IPL contracts, with Rishabh Pant going for an eye-popping amount of Rs. 1.9 crore to the Delhi Daredevils. Kishan, who also won himself a spot in the T20 league, went to the Gujarat Lions for Rs. 35 Lakh and was de
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