It All Happened in Heat of the Moment: Ravi Bishnoi on Altercation After WC Final

Young India leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi has said that he is filling his cricket appetite by watching old World Cup and IPL matches. Bishnoi, who was part of the U-19 team that reached the final this year, was supposed to play in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab.

"I'm filling my cricket appetite watching old World Cup and IPL games on TV. I can't wait to go out and do some real bowling once it's safe. I only bowled for two days after I came back," Bishnoi told ESPNCricinfo.

"Since the lockdown began, we've only been indoors here in Bikaner. The academy I am part of is conducting fitness classes online. Rajasthan Cricket Association has divided teams by age groups and given fitness guidelines, and Anand Date, our fitness trainer, appointed by the BCCI, has developed some plans.

"But it's quite challenging, and we need to improvise. Not everyone has equipment at home, or the space, so it becomes tricky doing weight training. I've been using big stones or even the LPG cylinder as weights."

After losing the World Cup final against Bangladesh, a few players from both the sides were involved in an on-field altercation. This led to a few suspensions and demerit points.

"It was all in the heat of the moment. We realised later that we shouldn't be doing all this. That maturity level has come. There's a lesson there. You cannot be short-tempered because ups and downs are part of your cricket journey. It has been a real learning curve for me. I just looked at that incident positively, extracted what learnings I could."

Not just that, the youngster also took learning from watching from the documentary of Australia cricket team. "I'm not doing anything new, but finding joy in spending time with family. My sister's four-year-old son is here, so I've been playing with him.

"I even watched that documentary on the Australian team, The Test, and tried to approach it like a student. It was amazing to see how a broken team rebuilt itself. I got goosebumps seeing their coach [Justin Langer] pump them up and imagining the mahaaul [atmosphere] on the international stage."