After decimating Pakistan in Manchester for the seventh time on Sunday, a tenacious India is set to play Afghanistan in Southampton on Saturday. Mathematically just about anything is still possible. Realistically, Afghanistan have the slenderest chance of qualifying and it does seem hard to see how they will do that.
However, buoyed by their versatility, and with the next fixture spread at a leisurely gap of five days, team India surely must’ve had a good time unwinding.
Spending time away from the field and soaking the moody spills of a glorious English sun, the men in blue must’ve wriggled their toes, heaved a sigh of relief and perhaps stretched out like snoozing cats on aesthetical arm-chairs, biding their lazy afternoons without much care. They have, after all earned every drop of it.
While we are allowed to let our imagination gallop and take into stride all the possible ways the team must be spending their time before taking to the field, all-rounder Vijay Shankar has been kind enough to provide us keen insights.
In a video posted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Shankar described how he ordinarily spent his day off. He was particularly profuse about a certain game he enjoys playing on his phone in free-time. Yes he admits he is hooked, and no, it is not PUBG. It’s actually a word game!
The 28-year-old, who got injured after being pinned on the foot by a javelin of a ball hurled down from Jasprit Bumrah’s spiky coils of bowling, also revealed that Dinesh Karthik and KL Rahul were among others in the team who play the game.
Well not just that, but he also claimed that he was better, no, best among the three. Practice makes man perfect eh?
WATCH: What's @vijayshankar260 up to on his off day?
We find out about the game that VJ is hooked on to & the sport he is practicing when he is not playing cricket 😉😉😎 – by @RajalArora #TeamIndia #CWC19
Watch the full video here ▶️▶️ https://t.co/XJvF7ZKU3E pic.twitter.com/Z6AlHDozdT
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 21, 2019
Now who turns out to outdo the rest on field against Afghanistan, is something only time will tell. Since Shankar’s toe injury is not an alarming one he will have the chance of proving his prowess as well. In the meantime, with no challenges thrown to the claim he is the undisputed champion, at least when it comes to the word-game.