Rohit Sharma pleasantly surprised by team bonding session organized by Anil Kumble

Ahead of the test series against West Indies, team India held a bonding session for the entire Indian squad including Mahendra Singh Dhoni. New Indian head coach Anil Kumble came up with a new and unconventional way of a team bonding session that included music and yoga.

Each and every player was ecstatic about having a bonding session with the new coach and the ODI captain MS Dhoni played the drums to entertain everyone present in the room.

It was something that was never done before, so Indian batsman Rohit Sharma reflected on the unconventional bonding session by saying: “To be honest, we didn't expect it, but as soon as we entered the room, all of us were overjoyed.” He added: “It was something unusual for all of us, something which we never did and I'm sure everyone enjoyed it because you could see from the expression yesterday, everyone enjoyed it because it was new, something which you haven't done it and you're into it to do it, you always enjoy doing that.”

When asked how the bonding session went, he said: “It's always good to have these kind of sessions everyone now and then just to get the team together and laugh together as a team before going on a tour and also it really helps the people and also the team to stay together during your tough times, good times, so it's always important to have these kind of sessions every now and then.”

He added: “There was lots of learning from the session, which we all know what was it about, how the team works together, so it was something unusual and I'm sure we'll see more and more of these in coming years on tours as well.”

When asked how important these sessions are, he said: “Yeah absolutely it is important after having a hectic day on the field, you need to go and relax yourself and unwind as you said, you need to understand what you need to do, so just like I said, the team bonding session was unusual, playing drums, singing songs, dancing on those drums, so it was something nice and I am sure everyone enjoyed it and we look forward to more of these kind of things which I am sure will help the team and also individually.”

Dhoni delivered a motivational speech to make this bonding session even more engaging and uplifting by saying: "Most of us started playing cricket when we were five. I think this is the period when the Indian cricket moves forward," said Dhoni addressing the players. "We have a set of batsmen who are into the Test arena, we have a pool of bowlers... this will be the phase that will be very interesting."

He added: "All of you won’t have a very good series, some of you will fail. But with seventeen Test matches, all of you would be successful. So it's important to enjoy the period which is tough. But till you stick together and till you enjoy as a group, I don't think there is anything that will stop you. So make sure to have a lot of fun."

Kumble also introduced new team building techniques like the ‘buddy project’, where the players are split into groups of two with senior players, who explain their experiences in world cricket to the junior players.