After avoiding series defeat at Adelaide, the Indian cricket team are making the most of their two-day break before the big series decider.
The Men in Blue won the second ODI by 6 wickets to level the three-match series 1-1 on 15 January. After putting up a 47-run opening stand with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma added another 54 runs with captain Virat Kohli before being dismissed for 43. The skipper went on to score his 39th ODI century as India chased a target of 299. Once Kohli fell for 104 in the 44th over, Dinesh Karthik joined MS Dhoni at the crease, and helped India cross the line with just 4 balls to spare.
Ahead of the third and final ODI on 18 January, that will decide who wins the series, all-rounder Vijay Shankar along with Rohit and Dinesh were spotted watching Rafael Nadal live at the Australian Open.
The 31-year-old opener Rohit and Shankar shared photos from the court, along with the Indian team’s fitness trainer Shankar Basu.
Karthik had credited Basu for players' supreme fitness after the Indian cricketers stood out with their intense fielding effort as well as bowling and batting in Adelaide’s blistering heat.
"Our trainer Mr. Basu is best in the world. He knows exactly when to push and when to keep an off day. He is the best strength and conditioning trainer going around in the world. He has a lot of knowledge and he pushed us exactly as per that.
"Whoever is coming from injury, they are properly fit. In the last 10 years I have worked with Basu and how he has helped me, he is an amazing trainer and a lot of credit should go to him.
"I am sure fast bowlers can given much more detail because they have worked a lot with him. There is difference in bowling 130 and 140 km/hrs. He makes sure that happens because we are very scientific in our training methods. He tracks everything including the amount of running we do. We have this vest which has GPS in it and gives us data on how much we are pushing ourselves. It's very detailed and systematic, so lot of credit to him," he added.
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