Indian cricket team

The usually fickle weather in Sri Lanka in July-August was relatively benevolent as the Indian cricket team crushed the hosts to complete their first-ever clean sweep of an away Test series.

With the Sri Lankan team in disarray, the Indian side has firmly stayed focused on finding a new high in terms of fitness ahead of the five-match One-Day International series, starting on Sunday with the first game at the Dambulla International Stadium.

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On Friday, the first series training session for Virat Kohli and Co, ahead of their limited-overs series, was an intense affair with the players waiting out a brief stoppage at the batting nets due to a downpour.

Soon after, the Indian skipper, the fittest player in the squad, took the lead in the team’s new mantra of raising fitness levels in the build-up to the 2019 ICC World Cup in England.

Stripped to their waist, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were put through the beep test – the original version before the advanced ‘yo-yo’ version was introduced. Both batsmen covered the different distances between markers, making sure they timed their runs in keeping with the beeps.