The Buzz

From stocking crates of bottled water and energy drinks to popping stomach-lining tablets before their meals, Australian cricketers are doing all they can to beat the heat in India as they prepare to take on Anil Kumble’s men in a gruelling Test series. John Peirik in the Sunday Telegraph offers the visitors a survival guide to the perils of India.

Dealing with the stifling conditions is the top priority. Litres of Gatorade have been ordered along with crates of bottled water will also be used. Players will also have their own individually marked water bottles. Drinks and towels are left in Eskies at fine leg and third man for the bowlers.

Ricky Ponting was an angry man as the third's day play winded to a halt in Hyderabad. The drama happened after the final ball. Michael Clarke had deflected Wasim Jaffer's drive to the stumps where Yuvraj Singh just about put his bat down. The appeal was referred to the third umpire and the players, perhaps not realising how close it was, kept walking towards the pavilion, with one eye on the light.

No signal came. So they all waited. Yuvraj smiled nervously. The TV kept showing replay after replay. It looked pretty close. No light came on though. Some technical glitch and the umpire Amiesh Sahiba got the news on his walkie-talkie. Not out was the verdict from upstairs. Yuvraj smiled and walked away but Ponting marched to the umpire to have an animated chat.

A pre-series camp is like a laboratory, especially if it goes on for as long as five days, a place where the players experiment, observe, and try to make sure they are not taken by surprise when they go out to play the Tests. During their five-day camp in Bangalore, India tried their best to prepare themselves for Australia. There were nets, fielding drills, open-wicket practice, and other such routine stuff, and also a few innovative methods used in the practice.

The most interesting of them was Gary Kirsten’s way of getting the batsmen ready for short-pitched bowling. Kirsten got harder-than-normal tennis balls, and served them, like in tennis, for the batsmen to face. He managed to get the balls to bounce into the ribs of the batsmen. He could also go for the slice serves, which resulted in prodigious outswingers.

Sourav Ganguly's first attempts at getting some practice ahead of the Test series against Australia didn’t go too well, the Times of India reported. Ganguly, who hasn't played competitive cricket since August, has joined India A in Chennai for the Test against New Zealand A. However, there were no quality bowlers when he turned up for his first nets session at the MA Chidambaram Stadium - the other India A players had the day off. He gave up batting after half an hour and turned his attention to slip catching with Dav Whatmore, though that apparently didn't last long because the assistant throwing the balls to Whatmore wasn't very accurate.

Ganguly left without saying much. “Please don't push me. I'm just not in the mood to talk,” he told reporters but Whatmore said he looked “keen and hungry”.