5 min readAhmedabadFeb 20, 2026 09:15 PM IST India waited until the twilight gleam receded and the lights flickered to life at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Until then, they busied themselves with a boisterous session of rondo, where Tilak Varma unfurled a gorgeous back-heel and Arshdeep Singh wafted the thin air numerous times, where they gambolled around with the football, passing waywardly and jogging playfully, where the coach Gautam Gambhir summoned an impromptu huddle as his charges kept nodding at the instructions. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO Whatever transpired in the huddle might have been rousing, because they busily dispersed to form three distinct groups of five players each, spaced out like a triangle. At one end was T Dilip, pulling and slogging the ball to the five-some clustered towards house left, standing in the midwicket region to where the fielding coach was batting. Right opposite to him was Ryan Ten Doeschate, feeding flat low-fliers to those perched in midwicket region; parallel to him was Sitanshu Kotak performing the same routine to sharpen their catching, one …