Team India has had an eight-day break in the T20 World Cup before they take on Afghanistan in their opening Super 8 match at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on Thursday.

Their final group league match against Canada was washed out in Lauderhill, Florida, and the full squad was keen to make use of the practice opportunities since their arrival in Bridgetown on Sunday night.

All the players were at practice on Monday and Tuesday despite both sessions being optional. Virat Kohli, out of runs in the group stage, was visibly keen to be back in form and batted for over 40 minutes, moving from one strip to another and facing a variety of bowlers.

“There is real keenness in the group to go and do something special. So that’s a good way to start our second stage in the tournament. Clearly shows that everybody wants to make a difference, and obviously, we take our skill sessions quite seriously,” captain Rohit Sharma said on bcci.tv.

“There is something to achieve in every session. Once we play our first game, we are playing the next two games in a span of three-four days. It’s going to be a little hectic, but again, we are used to all of this. So that’s never going to be an excuse,” Rohit said.

“We will look to focus a lot more on our skills and what we need to do as a team rather than all of this. Every session then becomes really important and to make the best
use of it.

“We have seen a lot of games here, played a lot of games here so everyone understands what one needs to do to get the result in our favour. Everyone’s looking forward and quite excited at the same time,” added Rohit.

Following their match against Afghanistan, India take on Bangladesh on Saturday before their final Super 8 fixture against Australia on Monday.