One bat leans against the stumps, presumably the heavier one. The other is in Ajinkya Rahane's hands as he marks his guard and then gets to work. A few blocks. Then some firmer pushes. Everything is kept along the ground. That he needs to work himself into the big shots holds true even at training. Then comes the bat switch, and a blistering straight drive that any No. 3 would be proud of. The question is, will he be a permanent one?
It has been an arduous journey for him to get here. Rahane was dropped in Bangladesh because India thought they needed a big hitter more than technically-correct batsman. Against South Africa in the T20s, he could not be fit into the top three so was dropped again. In between, he was India captain on a tour to Zimbabwe. It seemed the higher-ups just could not make up their minds about leaving Rahane feeling like Schrödinger's cat with no way to know if he is in or out. Last week at Eden Gardens, he was both: in amongst the XI, out because of the rain.
But Kanpur may be the start of a long-awaited symbiotic relationship. Rahane needs more one-day cricket to expand his range. India need batting depth. So why waste one of their best resources?
"If you see our batting line-up on paper, this team looks very strong when Jinks [Rahane] bats at the top of the order followed by Virat [Kohli] and followed by me and [Suresh] Raina," India captain MS Dhoni said. "It looks like it has got all the ingredients."
So will the recipe be handed down from Kanpur to Indore and beyond? "It's a thought we need to look into carefully," Rohit Sharma said at the pre-match press conference on Tuesday. "And what we do with our players as to the batting order really depends on what MS thinks about it. I know that Virat has scored most of his runs batting at No. 3 and Ajinkya has just got in at No. 3 and scored some runs. But I don't know if it's a permanent solution. But time will tell you what the ideal batting line-up will be for us."
Therein lies a tightrope walk for the team management. On the one hand, India have woken up to a combination worth persisting with, but for that their best batsman has to be pushed out of his preferred spot. There have been times when India have worked on the principle of having a flexible No. 3. An early wicket would bring Rahane out to calm things down, a good foundation would bring Kohli out to heat things up. This ploy may yet continue, but the point is that India will at least be using their best players as they try to overturn a 0-1 disadvantage in this series.
The problem, a well-documented one, for Rahane has been his scoring rate. But it can be less of one in a line-up that has Rohit at the top, Kohli right next to him and Suresh Raina and Dhoni to round things off. Like in Kanpur, where Rahane made 60 off 82 balls but the partnership he had with Rohit amounted to 149 runs in 157 balls. That's brisk by any standard. And more importantly it set the team up for victory until India suffered a second final-overs fiasco on the same day.
The other issue, although this one is not unique to him, is that Rahane needs a few deliveries to warm-up, perhaps as a result of his orthodox technique. Opposition captains can tell their bowlers to stick to a line and pack the field accordingly to dry the runs and wait for the mistake. That doesn't necessarily mean Rahane should shed his old-school methods. Kane Williamson, as a contemporary example, is pretty much a walking, talking coaching manual and he has an ODI strike-rate of 84.19 and the No. 4 spot in ICC rankings for ODI batsmen, only two rating points behind Kohli.
Williamson's success has stemmed from his ability to update his repertoire as opposed to overhauling it. The inside-out loft over cover has become a signature stroke and his skill in working the angles on a cricket field is on par with the best. And rarely does he muscle the ball away or look for reverse sweeps and switch hits. Simple, straightforward strokeplay allows him to be a lynchpin for the New Zealand batting line-up. Rahane could perform a similar role for India, but he definitely needs time to work out a few kinks. Whether he gets it will depend on the thinktank.
"We have Mr Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun and Mr [Sanjay] Bangar to get that thought process going and come out with a solution," Rohit said. "I'm sure whatever they decide to do, it will be best for the team. At the moment, yes we are trying to find out what the best combination is going forward - who will be No. 3, who will be No. 4. But I'm sure in the next few games you will see that we will have a proper batting line-up."
The next 50-over World Cup, and even the Champions Trophy for that matter, are far away so India and Rahane have some time to figure it all out.