Sanju Samson's jokes keep Team India's spirits high amid rain interruptions ahead of third ODI vs West Indies
Sanju Samson took the lead role in lightening up the mood. Samson made a useful contribution to India's 312-run chase in the second ODI scoring his maiden fifty in this format of the game. The right-hander would look to make the most of the final opportunity to impress the selectors before heading back home as he is not a part of the five-match T20I series
Rain played hide and seek on Tuesday hampering India's last training session ahead of the third and final ODI against the West Indies at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad but Sanju Samson kept the spirits high with his light-hearted conversations. Like it has happened very often during the course of this ODI series, the skies opened up as soon as Team India reached the venue all geared up hoping to get some quality practice. That, however, didn't dampen the spirits of the Indian side, who have already pocketed the three-match ODI series by winning the first two matches.
According to journalist Vimal Kumar's video posted on his YouTube channel, it was wicketkeeper-batter Samson, who took the lead role in lightening up the mood. Samson made a useful contribution to India's 312-run chase in the second ODI scoring his maiden fifty in this format of the game. The right-hander would look to make the most of the final opportunity to impress the selectors before heading back home as he is not a part of the five-match T20I series starting from July 29.
Regular captain Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, and Harshal Patel who all were not a part of the ODI series, have now joined the squad for the T20I leg. Barring Rohit and Pant, the rest of the cricketers were present on Tuesday in the training session.
Paddy Upton, the mental conditioning expert, who had played a huge role as a support staff member in India's World Cup-winning run in 2011, joined the team ahead of the third ODI and will be a part of the group till this year's T20 World Cup in Australia.
Coming back to the training session, Ashwin, Karthik, Harshal Patel and others did some basic physical drills when the rain relented but just when they were looking to take it to the next level, the rain returned, forcing them to go to the indoor nets.
Pandya, Shubman Gill and Bhuvneshwar Kumar spent some time batting and bowling in the indoor nets while Samson kept the others busy with his stories. Overall, the Shikhar Dhawan-led side was in high spirits.
