Lunar eclipse forces India to change training schedule, Hardik Pandya bats for over 2 hours

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Practice began a little after 7:30 PM. Fielding drills first. One by one, players stood with their backs to three small nets. Each net different. The first had proper stumps — three full-height. The middle had three stumps at half-height. The third had a football placed on the ground.

A ball would be underarmed from a short distance. The player would turn, collect, and in one sweeping motion fire at the net of their choice. Conservatism prevailed early. Most aimed for the stumps — safer targets. Until Ishan Kishan went for the football and missed.

Then Axar Patel smashed it. Joyous shouts erupted. Backslapping all around. More tried. Arshdeep Singh nailed the football a short while later, triggering another round of celebration.

India team during practice session ahead of T20 World Cup 2026 semifinal in Mumbai. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar)

Four batting nets were set up, two on either side of the match pitch — the same pitch where two World Cup games have already been played. England vs West Indies, where England fell short chasing in their 7 PM game. Nepal vs Italy, where Italy won chasing in 12.4 overs in a 3 PM start.

Hardik Pandya started batting first and kept at it for more than 2 hours. Against the bowlers, he largely punched and drove, working on placement and timing. Later, against throwdowns from Ryan ten Doeschate in a separate net, he really began hitting—going after the ball with full power.

There were issues. The bat turning in his hands. Hips not twisting fluently. Every now and then, ten Doeschate would meet him for a chat. Hardik would twist his hips, adjust his stance, try again. The work continued, methodical and focused. Later, he switched to a net with regular bowlers, and this time the focus seemed to be on his bat swing. Standing pretty close to him was the head coach Gautam Gambhir, who kept the chat going with him. The bat still kept turning in hands every now and then, triggering shadow drives from Hardik. At 10 pm, he finally finished with a lofted hit down town – and then walked across to fist-bump with each and every net bowler.

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Abhishek Sharma, the opener, began by bowling and fielding before batting at a later stage. Typical routine for him.

Suryakumar Yadav had a long net too, playing his sweeps and lap shots at the Wankhede, his ground, where he’s played swashbuckling knocks in the IPL. The shots came naturally here — the familiarity of home conditions showing in every stroke.

At one stage, for 10 minutes, Sanju Samson had Doeschate lobbing underarmed balls at his head – which he would pull. Then, he had the ball thrown really full at him for drives. Shivam Dube, who bowled as well, trained his long levers before ending his stint alongside Hardik, practising his pull shots against bouncers from throwdowns. Incidentally, Mohammad Siraj was the last to leave the batting nets, heaving away with Ishan kishan and Hardik bantering with him. Eventually at 10.09 pm, Siraj finally relented and left after smashing a huge six over long-on, not far from where MS Dhoni’s famous hit in 2011 landed.

The moon rose over Mumbai. The eclipse passed. The practice session ran its course at around 10:10 PM, after Hardik, the last man standing, was finally satisfied with his 135- minutes marathon stint. Thursday’s semifinal against England is one day away. The rituals have been observed. The moon has been respected. The drills have been done. Now comes the cricket.