Team India focus on strength & conditioning, rehab amid lockdown

New Delhi, May 12:  The sporting world might have come to a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the Indian cricketers are looking to keep up their fitness game despite the virus-induced break. In fact, strength and conditioning and injury rehabilitation has been the focus for the players as they look to stay ready for live action once normalcy returns.

Speaking to IANS, sources in the know of developments in the team management said that Virat Kohli and boys have been focusing on maintaining their fitness standards and the duo of trainer Nick Webb and physio Nitin Patel have also ensured that those -- who had injury issues like Rohit Sharma, Deepak Chahar and Ishant Sharma -- focus on their rehabilitation in this break.

"The idea is to keep the players fit and raring to go. Strength and conditioning classes are on and as you are aware, the performance of the boys are checked by Webb and Patel through the Athlete Monitoring System (AMS). The duo give the players the required input after checking their progress on AMA. Apart from this, focus has also been on rehabs and treating niggles.

"As you are aware, we had a couple of players who were injured before the coronavirus outbreak put an end to our series against South Africa. So, the physio has also been checking the progress that those players have made and ensuring that they reach the standards that a professional athlete must achieve before returning to live action.

"In fact, when you are playing non-stop cricket and travelling like the Indian players have to, you also get niggles and that is not just restricted to the fast bowlers. It can also happen to batsmen and that is also an area that the support staff has been working on, to treat those little areas to make sure that the boys are not only fresh when they return to action, but also supremely fit," the source pointed.

Skipper Kohli had recently spoken about how he has been looking to maintain optimum fitness levels even while staying indoors. "Fortunately, I have all my gym equipment at home, so I am able to train and that's not a problem for me. As far as the game goes, luckily, I am someone who has always been very keen on improving my mental state and not really focused on practising long hours in the net over a period of time," he said on Star Sports.