Coming back after a 42-day break from cricket, he was India’s joint top-scorer without ever finding his fluency

Shashank Kishore28-Aug-2022The noise levels had soared by several decibels as Virat Kohli walked out to bat, third ball of India’s chase. As he stood marking his guard, the giant screen played a package of his imperious cover-driving against Mohammad Amir during the 2016 Asia Cup. Kohli took a fleeting glance at it before settling into his stance.As the first delivery tailed in, he left it alone, trusting the bounce. He looked at the spot from where the ball had lifted, giving it a wry smile. The surface was a little tacky. There was grip if the bowlers were willing to dig it in, like Hardik Pandya had done during Pakistan’s innings. Ravindra Jadeja had got it to turn sharply from leg to off. With India chasing only 148, maybe this was Kohli’s opportunity to dig in and not go after the bowling straightaway, despite the chatter around intent and India’s new batting template.Related

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Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli: one flies as the other fights

Kohli was returning from a month-long break where he hadn’t picked up a bat. His ferocious intensity can lift the team. It can lift the entire stadium. As it did when he was among the first players to bound out to the nets in India’s first training session four days ago.Starting Wednesday, whatever he’s done on the field has been closely captured, reeled, storied, and shared widely: his towering hits, his exchanges with Babar Azam, his 50-metre sprints, the goals he’s scored in warm-up football.On Sunday too, he was among the first to walk out for India’s pre-match routines. The pleasantries with the opponents were done. He was a picture of concentration amid the noise. He took throwdowns initially, and then proceeded towards the boundary edge to take some catches. Within 10 minutes, Kohli was in and out. He wasn’t going to drain himself in the afternoon heat.It was a big occasion. His 100th T20I. He was about to become only the second player, after Ross Taylor, to play as many games in all three formats. Rahul Dravid invited Kohli to give the team a pep talk. He spoke passionately, and the huddle dispersed with a chorus of claps. With that, Kohli’s comeback was officially underway.He had played just four T20Is this year prior to this game. He hasn’t been a part of India’s changing template consistently, and so there’s this matter of having to buy into the philosophy, and then fit into it, which can be easier said than done. Perhaps it would have been a cakewalk for the Kohli of 2016, when he could flick on a switch and kill chases with ridiculous ease. Or blast his way out of the blocks while batting first and smash both pace and spin.Back to the present, though.It’s the second ball of his innings. Kohli’s instincts draw him into a drive. Except the ball isn’t quite there and it hits the seam and nips away. By the time Kohli has played the ball, he knows he’s in trouble, but a diving Fakhar Zaman grasses the chance at slip to the collective despair of the western block of the stadium, which is dominated by Pakistan fans in green.You begin to imagine what could have been had the chance been taken. ‘Kohli out for duck after opening up about mental-health struggles’? ‘Kohli’s much-anticipated return ends in damp squib’? There was potential for an explosion of headlines, memes and judgments. But luck has smiled on Kohli and he gets off strike next ball with a nudge to fine leg. He is off the mark.Virat Kohli slowed down against spin before chipping Mohammad Nawaz straight to long-off•AFP/Getty ImagesNow he’s up against Shahnawaz Dahani, the reason why Pakistan are defending 147 rather than 135. Kohli plays out three dots and then mistimes a lofted hit that plonks into the outfield after beating mid-off. Dahani is quick and zippy, and Kohli hasn’t managed to get him away. Whether he feels it or not, you feel the pressure.Square leg is in, and fine leg is out. The short ball could be coming, and it does. Kohli belts out a roar after getting into excellent position to wallop it to the midwicket boundary. He’s up and running.Or is he? Next ball, Kohli gets a thick inside edge. On another night, this may have rolled onto the stumps. Tonight it rolls down to short fine leg. India, 10 for 1 after two overs, have made a nervy start.It remains that way. KL Rahul is gone, Rohit Sharma is scratchy. In the next over, Kohli top-edges Haris Rauf for six over the keeper’s head. More luck. Surely it’s his night?Kohli is chewing gum, smiling, fist-bumping Rohit. The ball isn’t always flying where he wants it to, but he’s still in the contest. There’s a sliced drive over backward point off Dahani in the fifth over. He had been looking to go over cover only for his bat to turn in his hands.Multiple times over the last two years, Kohli has played imperious innings that haven’t lasted as long as they promised to. This innings is promising to be different – scratchy but enduring. But then he flicks a switch and plays a majestic flat-batted pull over wide mid-on. He stands and admires the shot until the ball crosses the boundary, and turns back to look at the replay on the giant screen. He’s nailed it off the sweetest spot on his bat.It’s been a perfectly imperfect Kohli knock – hard to categorise in any way.But in some respects, we’ve seen this innings before. At the end of the powerplay, he’s batting on 29 off 24. Then the spinners come on and the fields spread. Against Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz, he scores 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1. In that time, India lose Rohit. A seemingly straightforward chase is turning rather tricky.Then Kohli steps out, and chips Nawaz straight to long-off. Just like that, his stay is over. A perfectly imperfect end to a perfectly imperfect innings.

Flowing off drives, crisp back-foot drives, crunching pulls, ramps over third man – Shubman Gill showed his range of strokes in Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-202135* off 36 balls, MCG, 2nd inns
In his first Test innings, at the MCG, Gill had some close calls early but then counterattacked to score 45. In the second innings, with India chasing just 70, Gill took charge from the off. He started with a couple of perfectly timed off drives before showing off his back-foot play, finishing with seven boundaries in 36 balls.50 off 101 balls, SCG, 1st inns
In Sydney, Australia put up 338, and Gill begun India’s response with a half-century that included eight boundaries. His back-foot drive was a thing of beauty, and he timed a couple of pull shots perfectly. Against Nathan Lyon, he was comfortable: he took big front-foot strides to get to the pitch and was not afraid to cover-drive against the turn. His control percentage was 92, remarkable against one of the best attacks in Test cricket.91 off 146 balls, Gabba, 2nd inns
The last day of the series left India with a steep chase of 328. It may have been easier to look at it as three sessions to bat out, but Gill followed his attacking instincts. When Australia tried to bounce him, he played some beautiful hooks and ramps, taking 14 runs off one Mitchell Starc over. His control percentage in this innings, on a fifth-day pitch, was an astounding 95.2 and, though he fell short of a century, his innings set up a famous win.

Watto announces himself as an MVP allrounder

Sruthi Ravindranath23-Apr-20214:41

Gautam Gambhir, Farveez Maharoof and Dinesh Karthik on Watson’s performance

We polled our staff for their picks of the top ten best batting, bowling and all-round performances in the IPL through its history. Here’s No. 5Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils, 2008“He lost a bit of the edge in the last few games but today he was absolutely fantastic and showed his class. He’s a fantastic all-round cricketer and good enough to be in the Australian team.” – Shane Warne, Rajasthan Royals captainTwenty-six-year-old Shane Watson had endured a tough year. Though he was touted as one of the most promising allrounders in Australia, frequent injuries had left a perpetual question mark over his international future. Then came the 2008 IPL and in those 44 days Watson found his range. One performance showed he had it in him to become T20 allrounder.The Rajasthan Royals, seen as underdogs for their low-budget approach, had become the side to beat as the inaugural IPL season progressed. While lesser-known players put their hands up at crucial moments, most of the Royals’ campaign had been built around Watson. Coming into the semi-final, against the Delhi Daredevils, he was in tremendous form: 392 runs and 13 wickets in 13 games.In the semi-final, he cranked it up a notch. Such was Watson’s performance that the Wankhede crowd rose to its feet to chant his – yes, an Australian’s – name.Shane Watson all but finished the game in his first three overs with the ball•BCCIThe Royals were put in to bat and the openers took them to 65 in seven overs before Watson arrived at the crease with the intention to maintain momentum through the middle overs. He stuck to the brief for the first ten balls, hitting just one boundary. “It took me a few balls to understand the wicket and the bounce, but after that I got into the rhythm,” he said later.Watson then unveiled beast mode. In the 11th over, which brought 21 runs, he hit the inexperienced Yo Mahesh for a four and two humungous sixes on the leg side. With adept timing and footwork, he went after specific bowlers, swinging through square leg and midwicket. He took on legspinner Amit Mishra, who lured him with teasing flight, by getting under a delivery and dispatching it for six over midwicket.His 29-ball 52, combined with Yusuf Pathan’s final flourish, took the Royals to 192. By no means was this an easy target, though with Gautam Gambhir – the tournament’s second highest run scorer – and Virender Sehwag in the opposition, you couldn’t rule out an even contest.No, the chase was not on, considering the kind of day Watson was having.

The numbers

67 Percentage (12 out of 18) of Watson’s deliveries that were on the shorter side, which shows he executed the bowling plans to perfection on the day

5 Number of Player-of-the-Match awards Watson got in the 2008 IPL season. He also finished as Player of the Tournament for his 472 runs and 17 wickets

138.64 Watson’s Total Impact – the sum of his batting and bowling impacts – in the match. Daredevils’ Farveez Maharoof, who picked up three wickets in the match, had the second highest of 78.24 points

His opening spell pretty much decided the game. Gauging the amount of bounce the surface offered, Watson kept his length short and beat the batters with pace. In his first two overs, he got Sehwag to top-edge a catch to deep square leg and beat Gambhir repeatedly before having him caught at cover. In Watson’s third over, Shikhar Dhawan pulled a back-of-a-length delivery straight to the fielder at square leg. With 3-0-10-3, the Daredevils’ chase was all but over and they were eventually skittled out for 87.Such was Watson’s impact in the match that his 52 runs were worth 64.03 Smart Runs, and his strike rate of 179 translated to a Smart Strike Rate of 220. His economy of 3.33 in the match was 2.6 in terms of Smart Economy.This performance helped Watson revive his international career, and right as T20 cricket took root, he established himself as a complete, two-in-one player in the format.The Greatest IPL performances 2008-2020

Hundred players won’t be involved with Lancashire sticking by core from group stage

Paul Edwards16-Sep-2022It probably reveals something about the skewed priorities currently afflicting English cricket that the ECB’s designation of the Royal London Cup as “a development competition” was generally regarded as a downgrading, if not a plain admission of second-class status. What other sport would look down on the process of helping young players refine their skills?But of course, the media, whether established, social or anti-social, followed their leader. The 2021 Royal London would be a “second-team” competition and no one would watch the matches.Then the cricket got under way and supporters of the 18 counties began to turn up in decent numbers. Nothing to rival the Hundred, of course, but many members were more interested in seeing their youngsters for the first time than in watching well-known names play an unloved format for teams with which they could not identify. The result was that last season’s Royal London was something of an unexpected success and Glamorgan’s victory in the final, which was achieved without their Hundred players, was widely welcomed. This year’s competition has achieved something similar – matches at outgrounds have been especially popular – so much so that anyone wanting to play the group matches at the start of next season should consider what will be lost in terms of spectacle and opportunity.Certainly Keaton Jennings, who will lead Lancashire in Saturday’s final at Trent Bridge, has enjoyed both his fresh responsibilities and the company of players for whom every game is still a journey into a new world.Related

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“I’ve loved the captaincy, it’s been good fun and it would be lovely if we could bring home some silverware,” he said. “I’ve spoken to the younger players as a group and we’ve talked about somebody sticking their hand up to win a game. And when you look at our record this season, someone has generally done that, whether it was George Lavelle with that unbeaten 61 against Northamptonshire at Blackpool or George Balderson taking two vital wickets at Hove.”You can be critical of the way George Lavelle has got out at times but the way he has played has changed the momentum of games. Our young players are changing the direction of matches, not always with centuries or with five-wicket returns, but with vital contributions nevertheless. That exposure has been absolutely brilliant for them and there will soon come a first-class game, maybe a Roses match, in which that exposure will help them.”Many of the young Lancastrians got their opportunities because several players – Phil Salt, Luke Wood, Richard Gleeson, Liam Livingstone, Tom Hartley, Matt Parkinson – were playing in the Hundred. However, none of the newly disenfranchised six will play against Kent, although three of them are with England anyway and Livingstone is injured. But Lancashire’s coaching staff also had to be changed when Glen Chapple and Carl Crowe were seconded to the Manchester Originals. Graham Onions, Karl Krikken and Craig White all took on new roles and will also be involved at Nottingham.

“He is really a disruptive technology because his skills are just as applicable to these times as they were to the last years of the 20th century. To watch him go about his business with such pleasure is amazing”Keaton Jennings on Darren Stevens

Other faces will be more familiar to Jennings, most notably, perhaps, Luke Wells, whose century in the second innings of the Roses match was a perfect example of what happens when a T20 mentality is grafted on to the pure technique of an intelligent cricketer. Wells’ 124 off 82 balls included 11 fours and half a dozen sixes, three of the latter being struck in the fourth, sixth and seventh overs of the innings off Ben Coad and Jordan Thompson. A repeat against Kent would do Wells’ skipper very well indeed but his century was really only the latest manifestation of the change in the batting allrounder’s cricket since he left Sussex in 2020. And Jennings’ enjoyment of the innings was enhanced by the fact that he was sitting on his bat 22 yards away watching the show.”I haven’t seen a first-class innings like that for a long time,” Jennings said. “It was controlled, it was calculated and it was executed beautifully. Luke just said ‘I’m just going to play and I’ll see what happens.’ My role was to face as few balls as possible and get him on strike.”Luke was already a good player at Sussex and now he’s a really good player who has gone from strength to strength. The change has been good in that he’s challenged himself to be the best he can be very single day. You can see in his gym work that he’s different gravy to what he was two or three seasons ago and he’s maybe added a few years onto his career.”But another player who has added something like a decade onto his career – and, if he is to be believed, isn’t finished yet – will be strolling out for Kent having already ensured that Lancashire are being viewed as the red meanies in this year’s Royal London Cup. Perhaps 90% of those watching the final will be hoping 46-year-old Darren Stevens ends up on the winning side, and were the circumstances different, you get the feeling that Jennings would be amongst them.”I’ve played against Stevo quite a bit and he’s got me out quite a few times as well,” he said. “For me, his biggest attribute is his ability to change over time and adapt his skillset to learn, grow and get better. He’s done that over three generations of cricketers across a 25-year career and that shows a level of skill, a hunger and a drive to get better.”He’s really a disruptive technology because his skills are just as applicable to these times as they were to the last years of the 20th century. To watch a guy go about his business with such pleasure is amazing.”

The defending champions need some crucial replacements after trading out a couple of players

Abhimanyu Bose21-Dec-20225:12

Who should replace Lockie Ferguson at Gujarat Titans?

Who they’ve got
Gujarat Titans, the defending IPL champions, released only six players ahead of this mini-auction and, rather unsurprisingly, have kept the majority of their title-winning squad intact.Follow the 2023 IPL auction LIVE

You can watch the auction live in India on Star Sports, and follow live analysis with Tom Moody, Ian Bishop, Wasim Jaffer and Stuart Binny right here on ESPNcricinfo.

Current squad: Hardik Pandya (capt), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, B Sai Sudharshan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, Pradeep Sangwan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Yash DayalWhat they have to play with
The Titans have a total purse of INR 19.25 crore (USD 2.3 million approx.), and seven slots to fill, including three overseas slots.What they need
A fast bowler. They traded Lockie Ferguson to Kolkata Knight Riders and will need a replacement, as head coach Ashish Nehra said earlier this month. Another Indian quick will also help, because they would want a back-up for Yash Dayal. Not to forget Hardik Pandya’s workload management. Having released Jason Roy and traded Rahmanullah Gurbaz to Knight Riders, Gujarat would also want to bring in a top-order batter, who can either open or come in at No. 3. And a fast-bowling allrounder, but with only Rajasthan Royals (INR 13.2 crore), Royal Challengers Bangalore (INR 8.75 crore) and Knight Riders (INR 7.05 crore) left with smaller purses than them, they may end up being out-bidded for the big names (think Sam Curran, Cameron Green, Ben Stokes) in that category.The likely targets
Sam Curran would be a perfect fit, adding batting depth while also replacing Ferguson as a frontline quick. However, he will be in high demand and teams like Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings have plenty left in their purse and could break the bank for him.Reece Topley, a tall left-arm quick with a deadly yorker, will add to the team’s arsenal and might be easier to get than some others. Titans could target him as a like-for-like replacement for Ferguson.Jaydev Unadkat has a history of being expensive, but he brings with him a wealth of experience as well as form and confidence. He led his domestic side Saurashtra to the domestic 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy title this month, and also got a Test recall for India’s ongoing tour of Bangladesh.Mayank Agarwal is likely to be the most sought-after Indian batter in the auction. He would fit into the Titans top order, but they will face stiff competition from several teams.And why not Kane Williamson? He was released by Sunrisers and could become Titans’ glue at the top of the order. He can open the innings or play at No. 3.

After being the top wicket-taker in the Vitality T20 Blast, and stints in various leagues, the Afghanistan quick bowler is raring to go in his first senior World Cup

Interview by Deivarayan Muthu24-Oct-2021Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has established himself as a T20 – and T10 – globetrotter, following in the footsteps of his seniors Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. Having featured in the CPL, BPL, Lanka Premier League and the Vitality T20 Blast, the 22-year-old is now preparing for his first ICC world event with the Afghanistan senior team.You captained Afghanistan in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. How excited are you to play for the senior team in the T20 World Cup?
As a kid or as a teenager, when you start playing cricket and then you captain your Under-19 side in a World Cup, you dream of all this, representing your country in the men’s World Cup also. So, yeah, it was a dream since childhood. I started playing cricket when I watched Afghanistan qualify for our first T20 World Cup, which was in the West Indies, I think [in 2010].Related

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What are your memories of watching that 2010 T20 World Cup?
I remember we played against India and South Africa. It wasn’t as competitive as we are now in T20 cricket, but it was our first World Cup and the team qualified, so it was a joy to watch that tournament.Hamid Hassan was part of that Afghanistan squad in 2010 and you grew up idolising him. At the upcoming World Cup, you could get a chance to bowl alongside him
Growing up, I always looked up to him. He inspired me to take up cricket and fast bowling. Not everybody is lucky to play a World Cup with someone who was his hero or idol during his childhood. So it will be a great experience for me.Your slingy action can potentially be quite tricky to pick for batters who haven’t played against you before. Do you see that as an advantage?
Nowadays there are stats, videos and footage available, so I don’t think it will be a positive or something like an X-factor for me. I’ll do whatever I’ve been doing for the last two, three years. I just have to concentrate on the basics and focus on the things that have worked for me rather than thinking about who has faced my bowling before or hasn’t. We haven’t played against the Indian players, but we have played against a lot of other teams and some of us have also played alongside a lot of the guys in T20 leagues, so nowadays you know the [opposition] players well.Did this action come naturally to you?
I’ve always had this action since I started cricket. I’ve just done little tweaks on it, adjusted some things here and there because of back issues and injuries coming back in 2015-16.3:37

Naveen-ul-Haq: ‘Playing for Afghanistan in a World Cup is a dream’

Afghanistan’s series with Pakistan was recently postponed and you have a new captain for the World Cup. Has that affected the team’s preparation?
Yeah, it does [affect the preparation] and does not help the team. But our team was preparing back home earlier – we had camps in Kabul and Nangarhar. The other guys like Nabi, Rashid and Mujeeb [Ur Rahman] were part of IPL teams and I was in the CPL. So there were about five, six players who were busy in league cricket. The Pakistan series postponement we couldn’t do anything about, and then Covid struck again in Sri Lanka. They had to go into lockdown and we had to deal with visa issues.We actually planned to come to the UAE three weeks ago before our warm-up games were to start, but visa issues kept the team in Qatar. So we have prepared, just not as well as we have wanted to as a team to gel together before a big event, but we can’t do much. It is what it is. We have to just cope with the situation.In your first T20 Blast stint in England, you finished as the top wicket-taker. What was that experience like?
It was actually my first experience playing in English conditions, I hadn’t been there for club-level cricket or on national duty for Afghanistan. So I was looking forward to it, enjoyed every bit of it, and luckily finished as the top wicket-taker of the tournament.You were asked to bowl the tough overs up front and at the death in the Blast. How did you deal with that pressure?
To be honest, it has become normal for me to bowl two overs in the powerplay and then two at the death. This has become my role in T20 cricket – that’s why Leicestershire brought me in to do this job. Luckily, I did well there and it wasn’t a strange thing to me. Wherever I go now, I’m told to bowl in the powerplay and at the death.”All the Afghanistan players know the conditions in the UAE quite well; you need to come up with slower ones and variations on these pitches”•Abu Dhabi CricketIt all depends on how much you practise and how much you back yourself in a match situation. I’m just backing myself to bowl against anybody, and just do what has made me and worked for me. The result is not in our hands. Sometimes when you bowl a good delivery, you get hit. Sometimes when you bowl a bad delivery, you get a wicket. It can also go the other way, so you’ve got to take it in your stride.In the game against Durham in the T20 Blast, you bowled two beamers in the 19th over and had to be pulled out of the attack. How did you overcome that setback?
Before that [two beamers] happened, I think I had bowled three overs for about 17 runs and I bowled well, but I don’t know what happened during that over. I couldn’t figure it out, because normally I don’t bowl beamers – I don’t remember when I bowled one before that game. It slipped out of my hand. I bowled two no-balls and we lost the match.After that I was a bit upset but not much, because I knew nothing was wrong in my rhythm or in my thinking. I backed myself and throughout the tournament it did work for me.You got your slower balls to dip in the Blast. Is that something you’ve been working on in recent times?
Yes, I’ve worked a lot on my slower balls. In the Blast you play a home game and then an away game against the same opposition. Once, when I played one team, they started targeting my slower balls – they were standing back and waiting for them. This stuck in my mind and I worked it out during the tournament that if teams are standing back for my slower balls, then I will bowl fewer.ESPNcricinfo LtdThen, at the back end of the tournament, most of my wickets were not off slower ones. I maybe bowled three-four slower balls in my four-over spell. Earlier I would be bowling ten slower balls in a four-over spell. Since they were lining me up for them, I changed it up. So slower balls became like a surprise [weapon].You also bowled into the pitch at the CPL for Guyana Amazon Warriors. Is that something that will help you in the UAE as well?
Yes, we’ve also been watching the IPL, and the UAE is like a second home to us – we’ve played a lot of cricket here. All the Afghanistan players know the conditions quite well; you need to come up with slower ones and variations on these pitches. The pitches will only get slower, [as you can see in] the IPL games also. So we need these variations to do well at the back end of the innings or after the powerplay. Whoever varies his pace or length well, I feel their team will do well. As a T20 side, we have that in the back of our minds.Speaking of variety, your attack has plenty of it. How do you assess Afghanistan’s overall attack?
Afghanistan has been known for their bowling attack lately but now we also have a few good batters coming up. So we are a strong side. We have more variations or experience [than some of the other sides]. We have Rashid, Mujeeb, Nabi, and I’m quite hopeful that we will do well with this bowling line-up in these conditions.You were born in Kabul, then went to Pakistan as a refugee. Now you are a T20 globetrotter and an Afghanistan international who plays all around the world. Is that something you dreamt of?
I was born in Kabul and then we had to move to Pakistan for some time because of our condition back home. I didn’t start playing cricket there, I was just going to school there for five, six years. I started taking cricket seriously and watching cricket when I was back in Afghanistan.”Every league has experienced players with whom you share a dressing room and learn from, so league cricket is not just about financial benefit”•Getty ImagesEvery professional cricketer wants to experience different conditions and different leagues and environments. It was the same for me also. First [the goal] was to represent my country, do well for my country, and the next was to explore different leagues and conditions, get to know different players and cultures. You play in the Caribbean league, you get together with West Indies players… I enjoyed playing with [Shimron] Hetmyer and [Nicholas] Pooran. When you play for your country in an ICC event, you are against them. So yeah, it does help you become a better professional cricketer and also helps you develop as a person.LPL, CPL, T10 – every league nowadays has experienced players in a team with whom you can share a dressing room and learn from them. You see them how they prepare and how they go into a match, or you can ask them how they go through their down patches. So league cricket is not just about financial benefits for a player, you can get more out of the experience. How have you coped with bubble life?
After Covid struck, the only tournament that I played with some [attending] crowd was CPL and there was some crowd in the UK for the T20 Blast too. I was asking other players about the [challenges of] bubble life also. They said it is very difficult and it gives you mental stress and you get tired of it. I earlier felt like I didn’t feel any [stress] doing this, but once I came to Abu Dhabi from the UK it struck me, and now I also think it is hard. It is just six days [of quarantine] but I feel fatigued now. So, fingers crossed that I come out, relax a bit and start training. But, yes, the bubble life is now getting to me.Have you picked up any new hobby or skill in your quarantine?
Nothing new (). I think I’ve finished watching everything on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I don’t know what to do next, but I’ll find a new hobby for myself to keep me busy in the bubble.