No more sleepless nights, Indians at ease

They had a light training session keeping in mind the tough opening match against the hosts. However, what seems to be the most striking aspect of this team is their mental approach to the inaugural match.

The usual team meeting on the eve of the match is now a thing of the past. The reason?

As one of the players informed: ‘‘Every coach has his own style but Rajinder Singh prefers to hold a meeting on the morning of the match. That way all of us are able to sleep peacefully at night, get up fresh in the morning without any worry and talk on strategy.’’

After the tie-up with the new sponsors, the players’ look has gone a sea-change. These days they come to practice sessions, attired in bright coloured jerseys. And today, the Indians were in bright orange T-shirts.

An uninterrupted bash

The Indian have mostly stayed indoors since their arrival here. Their only outing is a trio at a Pakistani joint located in the vicinity of the team hotel.

But yesterday, the team decided to celebrate the birthday of winger Prabhjot Singh in the hotel itself. Most of the players switched of their mobile phones to have an uninterrupted bash

Food for thought

Special arrangements have been made with one of the many Indian restaurants here for supply of dal, rotis and rice with curry to the Indian team. Hungry as the players might get after long training sessions ahead of the tournament, a strict vigil is kept on their food intake. Physical trainer Sampath Kumar said: “The food is rather light in view of the tournament. We give the boys high-carbonated food, apart from rice, daal, soup and mixed salad. “Non-vegetarian meal is only for dinner and we totally avoid red meat like mutton which is hard to digest, fruit juices and bread after the team returns from the morning workouts.