Ever wondered how cricketers prepare themselves before matches? Now you know how!

Being a sportsperson is a tricky affair more often than not. With the nation’s pride resting on your shoulders every time you step out onto the field, it’s no surprise that even the best of the lot find themselves jittery. Cricketers, in particular, have to possess nerves of steel as they have to survive on the field for hours at a stretch, and even days when it comes to the longer format of Test cricket.

Although shorter formats of Cricket like the One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and T20s require the players to stay on their feet for hours, Test Cricket is indefinitely more challenging as the players have to be at the top of their game for 5 consecutive days, whether they’re wielding the bat, aiming to dislodge the bails of the opponent or diving to save a boundary. To attain and maintain such mental tranquillity which can help them enhance their performance in the match, several cricketers are known to adapt certain techniques to assist them. While some prefer to take a break from sporting action completely to rejuvenate themselves, some tend to sweat it out for long hours in the gym to accustom themselves with the imminent gruel.

Let’s take a look at the various methods cricketers undertake to prepare themselves before matches:

Intense workout

This is probably one of the most obvious routines of a major section of cricketers to prepare themselves before a big game. There’s nothing like hitting the gym and sweating it out in an intense workout session to get the adrenaline going and gaining confidence for the upcoming match. Working out instils a sense of self-assurance in most players as they feel strong and sure about themselves, ready to take on the opposition. Indian batting stars, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya are known too share their gym selfies and workout videos on a regular basis, highlighting the importance of the regime in their daily lives. Caribbean swashbuckling batsman, Chris Gayle credits fitness training as the secret to his insane batting skills. Gayle revealed that he spends a lot of time in the gym concentrating on strength training and cardio exercises, to keep himself fit.

Playing other sports

In case you’ve watched pre-match images, you’re bound to be familiar with cricketers tossing around a football in order to warm up. This technique of playing different sports is taken up by several eminent cricketers in their regular regime. That former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting had a perennial love for playing golf is a well known fact. What many people don’t know is that even when he was at the peak of his cricketing career, Ponting would play golf regularly in his spare time in order to maintain focus and maintain a competitive mood around him. Indian cricketing superstar, MS Dhoni, on his part, loves biking and car racing and indulges in these two high-octane activities to refresh himself.

Mental Training

Mental training has increasingly become a core part of cricketers’ lives. Many of the current crop of players have been vocal about techniques such as visualisation and self-talking being extremely helpful in building up their mental tenacity and getting them game-ready. While visualisation entails the player to mentally construct probable situations and devise strategies to handle them, self-talking includes boosting one’s confidence by uttering motivating or instructional statements to oneself.

In an interview released by the BCCI, Indian skipper Virat Kohli spoke at length about how visualisation has helped him improve. “I visualise a lot. I see myself in difficult situations and actually convincing myself that I can pull the team out in those situations. It won’t happen every time, but eight out of ten times it will end up happening because you’re so convinced about it. So, I think it’s how you prepare mentally is key in big games. That’s something that I’ve worked on, and it’s really worked well for me every time I’ve visualised and I’ve thought positively about the big games,” he said. Similarly, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has taken to visualising how a particular batsman may play a shot by watching videos repeatedly, which gives him ample amount of time to decide what deliveries he should bowl, thus lending him confidence about his ability to be able to dismiss them. Speaking to Cricbuzz, Ashwin once said, “I was watching a lot of off-spin videos on TV, etc. That does help. It is very good to visualise.”

On the other hand, players like Rahul Dravid, Kevin Pietersen and Ponting have admitted to repeating short, strong phrases like “Come on, he is not getting me out”,“Be positive with your footwork”, “Watch the ball” to themselves, in order to intensify their mental strength to face the opposition’s bowling attack. This technique essentially helps the batsmen to tune out other thoughts from the head and pushes them to play on their instinct, thus bringing out the natural flair.

Pre-match sex

While this may make readers raise their eyebrows at the apparent incredulity of the proposition, it was Gary Kirsten who pitched the idea of pre-match sex as a tool to improve player performances. Back in 2009, Kirsten addressed a confidential four-part paper concerning the benefits of indulging in sexual intercourse previous to a match, to the-then Indian team members, which he wrote in collaboration with mental conditioning expert, Paddy Upton. Although the article was leaked to the Hindustan Times creating hue and cry in all sections of the society, England spinner, Graeme Swann felt inclined to agree with Kirsten and described the idea as “the kind of forward thinking the game needs”. Kirsten’s theory in endorsing the idea was the well-proven scientific fact of sex increasing levels of testosterone, thereby inducing greater strength, aggression and competitiveness. All these traits would, in turn, help the cricketer to perform with better efficiency on the field.

Switching off from the game

In some cases, the best way to unwind before high-voltage clashes is to zone out completely. Some cricketers choose to relax in order to harness their energy for the match day by ceasing to practice a certain amount of time before a match. Notably, it was before the Adelaide Test in 2003, that Virender Sehwag and Dravid chose to skip practice sessions and went to watch a movie instead. In fact, Rohan Gavaskar refused to play a single ball in the nets while building up to the match. Even the great Sachin Tendulkar resorted to not batting in net practice sessions if he felt he wasn’t in the zone for it. This method of de-stressing helps to distract the player from the pressure of the game, thus helping them avoid overthinking and panicking about it in advance.

Playing Video Games with teammates

Indulging in some friendly banter over playing video games with teammates is one more way of bonding and elevating team spirit before a match. Further, the playful activity also helps in taking their minds off of the humongous burden of expectations that they have shoulder every day. The current Indian team has often been spotted huddled up in the hotel room during off-days, exercising their fingers on the playstation remotes. In a recent interview, skipper Kohli revealed that Axar Patel and Wriddhiman Saha are the two players in the ODI and Test formats respectively who carry their playstations on tours, on which the team plays FIFA.