Cuttack: The cricket frenzy in Cuttack has to be seen to be believed.
A day before their second T20 International against South Africa, Team India players turned up at Barabati Stadium on Saturday evening to train and finetune their skills for the big game.
And what do they find?
A stadium packed with thousands of people to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars.
“Match day feels on a non-match day. A packed stadium here in Cuttack to watch #TeamIndia train,” BCCI tweeted, sharing pictures of players practising in the middle, in the backdrop of a sea of people.
Match day feels on a non-match day. 👌 👌
A packed stadium here in Cuttack to watch #TeamIndia train. 💪#INDvSA | @Paytm pic.twitter.com/lLYwx06Jk3
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 11, 2022
Cricket-crazy fans are known to chase players and teams whenever in town. But filling up almost an entire stadium to watch a practice session is indeed very rare.
When the South Africans had their optional training this afternoon, there weren’t many people in the stands. But as the Team India bus reached the stadium around 5 pm, people made a beeline for the Barabati.
The last time international cricket was held in Odisha, COVID-19 was unheard of. So the wait has been quite long for cricket lovers in this state and they want to make up for lost time. Not all of them may have been able to get tickets for Sunday’s match, so many of them chose the second-best option.
Team India can surely expect a full house to cheer their guts out on Sunday evening at the Barabati. Rishabh Pant’s men will need all the support as they look to bounce back from an unexpected 7-wicket defeat in the series-opener at Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla.
