KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer on focus as India begin Asia Cup preparations in Bengaluru

Ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup 2023, which is slated to begin on August 30, Team India will have a six-day conditioning camp at the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s (KSCA) Three Ovals campus in Alur. The aim of the camp is to check the fitness level of all the cricketers as the team is set to enter a key phase, with the ODI World Cup 2023 in focus.

Currently, KL Rahul’s fitness is being closely monitored as the stumper-batter is dealing with an injury and may miss a couple of games in the Asia Cup. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar has confirmed the development of a new niggle and stated that Sanju Samson is waiting in the wings and will only get an opportunity if Rahul misses out. However, the Mangalore-born player is expected to recover well before the Super Four as NCA staff have expressed their delight over his batting and wicket-keeping practices.

Shreyas Iyer too is in the limelight at the moment. The middle-order batter missed a significant amount of matches due to a back injury in the recent past and was doubtful for the continental cup. However, he trained really hard at NCA and has recovered full fitness just in time to make it to the Asia Cup squad. Despite that however, the camp in Alur is going to be extremely vital for the cricketer as the selectors have named Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma in the mix, putting pressure on Shreyas to cement a spot in the playing XI.

Meanwhile, as per ESPNcricinfo, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna and Samson will be joining the camp on Friday, as they are slated to arrive in Bengaluru late on Thursday. They were part of the T20I series against Ireland and despite so, they will join the camp directly, as the players will be divided into batches for the outdoor conditioning and skill-based programmes from August 25.

On the other hand, cricketers who were not part of the Ireland series were given special diet plans and personalised fitness tests for two weeks. Also, the team management is very particular about the workload management of all the cricketers ahead of the two mega tournaments.