Indian team to prepare for South Africa series with military-style obstacle courses and trekking

The Indian team will embark on a mountain adventure to prepare for the South African team

The Indian cricket team will embark on a military-style boot camp in Himachal Pradesh to prepare for the 72-day long gruelling series against South Africa, according to reports in the TOI. This will be done to increase the physical endurance and mental toughness of the players for the long and testing period of cricket that awaits.

At the suggestion of Team Director Ravi Shastri, the Indian team will engage in the boot camp will include obstacle courses, high-altitude trekking and barrier courses. It will also involve a hike of over 7000 feet above sea level, an exercise has been modelled according to the drills of the Indian Army.

The Indian team, currently engaged in a skills training camp in Bengaluru, will arrive for the drill on Monday in Dharamshala. This is a change of plan from the earlier schedule, the two days in Himachal additionally fitted in to accommodate the boot camp.

"After the Indian team came back from Sri Lanka, Shastri had a talk with Anurag Thakur and requested him to grant the team necessary logistics for the high-altitude training. Anuragji gave a thumbs-up to Shastri's plan and told us to make sure that arrangements were made," an official of the HPCA was quoted as saying.

Boot camps, in military parlance, involves isolation, intense physical endurance tests and living without basic amenities – and are undergone to psychologically reprogram an individual's desire for self-preservation and self-satisfaction.

The Dharamsala T20 will be played on October 2. The series consists of two more T20 internationals, five ODIs and four Test matches.

The Australian coach John Buchanan had arranged a boot camp for his players in 2006, and the result had been a 5-0 whitewash of England. Only time will tell whether such extreme measures spell a similar fortune for the Indian side taking on the strong Proteas unit.

The majority of the South African team, meanwhile, landed in India on Sunday afternoon.