10 Unseen Photos of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jadeja and others practising : T20 WC 2021

Here is a collection of all the top Indian cricketers practicing at the T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE. These photos provide an insight of how the cricketers train and hone their skills.

The tosses have been a big factor, and when I’ve won a couple we’ll do what we wanted to do from Day 1. It’s been an honour to captain India and I’ve done my best. The shortest format has to give way for the longer formats. I’ve been grateful for the opportunity. It’s time for the next lot to take the team forward. Rohit has been looking on anyway, and Indian cricket is in good hands. Rahul Chahar comes in for Varun Chakravarthy for today’s game.

It’s a good opportunity to go up against arguably the world’s best side, and for our batsmen to go up against that bowling line-up of theirs. It was a big thing to get through the group stages. It was something we couldn’t replicate back home, and it’s been a massive event back home and for us here. Frylinck comes into the side today, he’s fit to go.

 Across all formats there are plenty. But winning in red-ball cricket across the globe – West Indies, Sri Lanka, Australia, England we are leading the series. It could be the longest lead in the history of cricket because the next Test is next year. To go across and beat all these sides every team in white-ball cricket – T20 or 50 over – we have beaten sides in their den which was my endeavour and team’s endeavour. 

In Rahul Dravid, they’ve got a guy who has inherited a great team and I think with his experience, he can only raise the bar in time to come. There are still players here who will play for another 3-4 years which is very important. It is not a team in transition and that’ll make the biggest difference. Virat is still there, he has done a fantastic job as the leader of the side, he’s been the biggest ambassador for Test cricket over the last five years.

These guys are physically and mentally drained, six months in a bubble and we would have ideally liked a bigger gap between the IPL and the World Cup. It’s when the big games come and when the pressure hits you – you are not that switched on as you should be. And it’s not an excuse. We take defeat because we are not scared of losing. Because in trying to win, you will lose a game.

Winning in red-ball cricket across the globe – West Indies, Sri Lanka, Australia, England we are leading the series. It could be the longest lead in the history of cricket because the next Test is next year. To go across and beat all these sides every team in white-ball cricket – T20 or 50 over – we have beaten sides in their den which was my endeavour and team’s endeavour. We were always labelled as big bullies at home, but when you had to travel outside you didn’t have the goods.

There are still players here who will play for another 3-4 years which is very important. It is not a team in transition and that’ll make the biggest difference. Virat is still there, he has done a fantastic job as the leader of the side, he’s been the biggest ambassador for Test cricket over the last five years. Lot of credit goes to him in the way he’s thought about how he wants the team to play the game and how the team has rallied around him.

Quite bizarre. I don’t think we were brave enough with bat or ball. Didn’t have much to defend but we weren’t brave when we walked out to field. When you play for the Indian cricket team you have a lot of expectations – not just from fans, but players as well. So there’s always going to be more pressure with our games and we’ve embraced it over the years. Everyone who plays for India has to embrace it. And when you cope together as a team you overcome it and we haven’t done it these two games.

 There’s always planning going into games. But a fantastic all-round performance from us against a formidable India side. We were able to build pressure throughout and the way the openers came out really set the platform. The balance of our attack has two spinners in it, I think the collective unit was impressive, the way they kept passing the baton. We saw some very good signs in our first match as well and we built on that. Look you play against such strong teams all the time, for us it’s about playing our game.

Sometimes in life, it’s not all about what you accomplish, it’s what you overcome. And what these guys have overcome over the last five years, the way they have travelled across the globe and performed in every part of the globe in all formats of the game will make this – irrespective of what’s happened here – as one of the great teams in the history of the game. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. It’s unfortunate that we are out of this tournament but that takes nothing away from a great side.