Doha, Qatar – Professional cricketer Himanshu Rathod joined the India A squad in Doha this week as the team sharpened their preparations for the upcoming Asia Cup Rising Stars tournament. The joint training session offered Rathod and fellow Qatar-based players a rare, high-intensity environment alongside some of the most competitive emerging talents in the sport. The batters in the India A squad included Captain Jitesh Sharma, Nehal Wadhera, Ishan Porel, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Naman Dhir among many others.
Rathod’s participation wasn’t ceremonial. The sessions demanded international-level discipline—high-speed fielding blocks, scenario-based net work, and technical refinement drills that exposed exactly where standards rise at the next tier. Training shoulder-to-shoulder with players accustomed to elite systems gave him immediate feedback on tempo, decision-making and execution.
For Qatar cricket, this kind of access is gold. Local players aren’t often placed directly inside a professional ecosystem where every rep is monitored and every mistake is corrected instantly. Sharing the training space with global-level athletes allowed the Qatar contingent to observe real competitive habits up close—communication patterns, warm-up protocols, skill detailing and recovery discipline.
The India A team’s presence in Doha has effectively turned the city into a high-performance classroom. For Rathod and others aiming to elevate their game, the experience serves as both a benchmark and a catalyst ahead of a busy run of tournaments in the region.
