Fatullah: Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and&nbsp;veteran pacer Ashish Nehra on Friday did not come for the Indian&nbsp;team's pre-match day training after being advised rest ahead&nbsp;of the crucial Asia Cup T20 game against Pakistan, here on Saturday.
While Dhoni is suffering from back spasms, the&nbsp;injury-prone Nehra has his own specific training programme,&nbsp;which is different from the general team routine.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2016/feb/ASIACUP-IND_nets.jpg" alt="Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma (R), Harbhajan Singh (2R) and Yuvraj Singh (L) attend a training session at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on February 26, 2016." /> Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma (R), Harbhajan Singh (2R) and Yuvraj Singh (L) and Jasprit Bumrah (extreme left) attend a training session at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on Friday. Pic/AFP
Dhoni had played through pain against Bangladesh but&nbsp;back spasms need adequate recovery time, which is specifically&nbsp;the reason he has been given 48 hours to recuperate before the&nbsp;Pakistan match.
His cover Parthiv Patel had his first training session&nbsp;but had precious little do as he did not get to bat in the&nbsp;main nets. Unless Dhoni's physical condition deteriorates&nbsp;further, Parthiv's chances of playing are minimal.
There was one interesting sight during the training&nbsp;session on the match-eve. Both India and Pakistan trained&nbsp;adjacent to each other inside the main stadium at the Khan&nbsp;Saheb Osman Ali Stadium and trained at the same time between&nbsp;4-6:30 pm local time. But during the entire two and half-hour&nbsp;training session, no pleasantries were exchanged between the&nbsp;members of the two sides.
Call it strange, there were four nets set-up on the four&nbsp;centre strips of the main stadium. In the first two nets, it was the Indian batsmen and in the next two were their&nbsp;Pakistani counterparts.
While training sessions of international teams are&nbsp;intense, it's not uncommon to see players mingle with each&nbsp;other.&nbsp;
It's certainly different from the 80's or 90's where&nbsp;one would find Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev enjoying a chat&nbsp;with a Javed Miandad during the training session or Wasim&nbsp;Akram would exchange a quick hello with Sachin Tendulkar or&nbsp;Mohammed Azharuddin.&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2016/feb/ASIACUP-PAK_nets.jpg" alt="Pakistani cricketers attend a training session at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on February 26, 2016." /> Pakistani cricketers attend a training session at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on Friday. Pic/AFP
It is not known whether it's the ensuing tension of the&nbsp;match or the off-field tension for the now-aborted series but&nbsp;it is a reality that an Indo-Pak match is slightly different&nbsp;from the other duels.&nbsp;
Shahid Afridi for one spoke about how politics and&nbsp;cricket should not be mixed but at the same time tried to&nbsp;portray how Pakistan had always made the first approach to&nbsp;resume bilateral cricketing ties with India.
"Sports can always develop good relationship between&nbsp;countries. I think the Pakistani people want to see the&nbsp;Indians in Pakistan and vice-versa. We should not try to paint&nbsp;a political colour in sporting activities. Our government&nbsp;always took the first step in this regard," Pakistan captain&nbsp;said.
In any case, the psychological battle has begun before&nbsp;the commencement of the on-field showdown.

Captain MS Dhoni and pacer Ashish Nehra don't turn up for Indian&nbsp;team's pre-match day training on a day that saw neither of the teams&nbsp;exchange any&nbsp;pleasantries despite practising next to each other

Asia Cup: No love lost between arch-rivals during nets as Dhoni, Nehra rest

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Asia Cup: No love lost between arch-rivals during nets as Dhoni, Nehra rest

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