Following their victory over New Zealand in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 on Sunday, the Indian cricket team is making the most of their break. Their next match is scheduled against England on October 29. During a bit of a downtime in between, the players and support staff have been enjoying various activities in the mountains, including adventurous treks and ice-cold river baths.
KL Rahul, the Indian batter, shared some photos from one of their mountain adventures, featuring himself, head coach Rahul Dravid, and batting coach Vikram Rathour taking a refreshing dip in a river. Although their last World Cup 2023 match was played at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cricket venues globally, it appears that some of the players and staff have chosen to stay nearby.
In his social media post, KL Rahul captioned the pictures, saying, "Nothing beats nature's ice dip." It's evident from one of the photos that even head coach Rahul Dravid fully embraced the adventure.
Previously, Dravid had embarked on a trekking expedition with some of India's support staff to Triund, a location near Dharamsala. In a video posted by BCCI on X (formerly Twitter), Dravid shared his thoughts, saying, "Superb view coming here after Triund just getting here up the mountains and climbing it is a challenging trek I must admit it. Unfortunately, we can't bring the boys up here it is too risky walking on the stones but hopefully when one of the days boys are not working they get to experience this."
India's batting coach, Vikram Rathour, also spoke about his trekking experience, noting, "When you are climbing up the last trek is a little tricky the last half hour is hard but the moment the view opens up it is worth it."
India's Peformance in World Cup 2023 So Far
The Indian players have a few more days of rest before they head to Lucknow for a highly-anticipated match against defending champions England on Sunday, October 29. India are currently placed atop the table after having won all of their five matches in the tournament. However, their star all-rounder, Hardik Pandya, will continue to be unavailable for two more matches and is expected to rejoin the Indian team during the last two matches in the league stage of the ICC Men's World Cup 2023.
Hardik injured himself while bowling his first over in the match against Bangladesh in Pune. In his absence, India made two changes to their Playing 11 for the match against New Zealand, bringing in Mohammed Shami and Suryakumar Yadav in place of Hardik and Shardul Thakur.