Rohit Sharma was surprised with the team bonding session

Anil Kumble after taking over as the head coach of the Indian team has implemented a few new reforms. One among it was the team bonding session that he organized. Ahead of the tour of West Indies, Indian opener Rohit Sharma said that he was surprised and ecstatic with the session which had Indian limited-overs skipper MS Dhoni playing the drums.

It was something that is unusual for the players, which made every member of the team happy and it was visible from Rohit’s words – “To be honest, we didn’t expect it, but as soon as we entered the room, all of us were overjoyed.”

He added: “It was something unusual for all of us, something which we never did and I’m sure everyone enjoyed it because you could see from the expression yesterday, everyone enjoyed it because it was new, something which you haven’t done it and you’re into it to do it, you always enjoy doing that.”

When how the bonding session went, Rohit said, “It’s always good to have these kind of sessions everyone now and then just to get the team together and laugh together as a team before going on a tour and also it really helps the people and also the team to stay together during your tough times, good times, so it’s always important to have these kinds of sessions every now and then.”

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“There was lots of learning from the session, which we all know what was it about, how the team works together, so it was something unusual and I’m sure we’ll see more and more of these in coming years on tours as well,” he added.

When asked about the importance of these sessions, he said, “Yeah absolutely it is important after having a hectic day on the field, you need to go and relax yourself and unwind as you said, you need to understand what you need to do, so just like I said, the team bonding session was unusual, playing drums, singing songs, dancing on those drums, so it was something nice and I am sure everyone enjoyed it and we look forward to more of these kinds of things which I am sure will help the team and also individually.”

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Dhoni also delivered a motivational speech to uplift the players in the bonding session. “Most of us started playing cricket when we were five. I think this is the period when the Indian cricket moves forward,” said Dhoni addressing the players. “We have a set of batsmen who are into the Test arena, we have a pool of bowlers… this will be the phase that will be very interesting.”

He added: “All of you won’t have a very good series, some of you will fail. But with seventeen Test matches, all of you would be successful. So it’s important to enjoy the period which is tough. But till you stick together and till you enjoy as a group, I don’t think there is anything that will stop you. So make sure to have a lot of fun.”

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The new coach also introduced team building techniques like the ‘buddy project’, where the players were split into two groups. It is an exercise used to help the mix of players in the team bond better and for the junior players to get an insight into the game and learn from the experiences of the senior players.