A video room has changed everything for the Indian team and helped the batters to get into the zone. Indian batters had faced problems in this World Cup, and to get rid of the emergency, Indian video analyst Hari Prasad Mohan came up with a new strategy. He compiled previous videos of Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma and Hardik Pandya to show the batters what they were a year ago and what they had become in this tournament.
What happened in the video room?
In the team room in Chennai, the footage told a blunt story. Abhishek Sharma watched a sequence of identical dismissals, the same cross-batted slash, the same edge flying to third man, the same slow walk back. Different matches, same mistake. The montage stacked up like a charge sheet.
Also Read । Indian Super League: Jamshedpur FC stun East Bengal FC 2-1 with late turnaround
Tilak Varma sat through his own reel. The batter who had crafted twin centuries on South Africa’s pace-friendly tracks, patient, precise, late on the cut, now appeared rushed. Swinging too early. Committing too soon. A pre-tournament injury had created urgency; urgency had disturbed rhythm.
Hardik Pandya’s clips carried a different theme. Coming into the World Cup in destructive form, he seemed to overreach, forcing strokes that required timing, muscling deliveries that needed placement. Power, when touched, would have sufficed. Aggression when control was the better option.
What changed in the match against Zimbabwe?
As the players' repeated mistakes had affected them a lot, the video room adventure served as a mirror and in the very next match against Zimbabwe altered the story and came as a relief. For Abhishek Sharma, the video room worked really well; his muscle memory was triggered, and his approach to the game changed. Sharma shifted his guard to the leg and middle stump. The fourth-stump channel that had tempted his cross-batted slashes was now within his hitting arc. Instead of reaching across the line, he could play straight and stay deep in the crease, where he is strongest.
Also Read । UEFA Champions League Round of 16: Real Madrid, Manchester City drawn together; Bodø/Glimt meet Sporting CP
Tilak Varma was able to play across the field and also hit in his favourite areas. His wagon wheel is itself a replica of his change. He was able to do the thing for which he is known.
As the players have gained their form now, the virtual quarter-final between the T20I OGs, India and West Indies, is going to be a climax to have an eye on.
