Amidst heavy rain, India train indoors as Rahul resumes practice

EVEN as a few India players trained at the Gamini Dissanayake Indoor Cricket Nets, Nondescripts Cricket Club during the optional training session, it was pouring outside in Colombo on Thursday. The weather forecast said 100 per cent chances of rain during the day and it came true. Despite the heavy rain, India players managed to train but what's more worrisome is the fact that the forecast remains the same for next one week with chances of precipitation ranging from 67 per cent to 95 per cent.

- FIROZ MIRZA

As many as five Super Four stage matches have to be played in Colombo with India playing on September 10, 12 and 15 against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, respectively.

The chances of precipitation on these days are 95, 84 and 60 per cent. "Like India, Sri Lanka also witnesses southwest monsoon from May to September.

So it's not new that Colombo is witnessing rain. As the month will conclude, the rain will subside," a Sri Lanka Cricket official told this daily. "We were more than happy when the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) gave us an opportunity to cohost the tournament but I must say the timing is not good. One match has already been washed out due to rain and if more games meet the same fate, then it will affect the credibility of the SLC," added the official.

There is a one-day gap between the India-Pakistan match, Sri Lanka-India match and Sri Lanka-Pakistan match.