It's funny how three days in India can change quite a bit. I'm not saying that these changes have necessarily been good, but they're there and I felt I should remark upon them. For starters, I would say we've all been slightly lax on the whole "watching what you eat" lingo and have ended up on the wrong end of things for the last while (except for Nigel, who has been surprisingly smug about the whole issue!).

Just when you think your stomach can't possibly take any more worse turns, a half-hour net in the morning under the sweltering heat makes you reconsider that idea. The final ten minutes becomes more of a battle against your urge to visit the toilet than any of the bowlers!

Of course, it can't help that training has been upped a notch. We typically start at 9.30 and are done by 4.30/5.00 in the afternoon. Either side of lunch, we've taken to constant netting mixed with a few batting drills. They're fairly simple exercises, such as the sweep shot or coming down the track, but it's the little subtleties thrown in by our coaches that make all the difference. From there, we are moved into the nets to put into practice what we've just learned.

If anyone could watch us train, they'd see the efforts being made by the lads in all of this. Safe to say, Ryan Hopkins has mastered the sweep and is 100% guaranteed to use it whenever a coach just happens to be watching. Mark Dwyer, on the other hand, hasn't found as much success with this  in fact, all he did find was the ball flying in between his grill and a black eye to go along with it.

A lot of the focus with every net is put on what we as individuals are hoping to achieve. We are asked to have one goal in mind every time we go into bat, whether it is simply to not get out or more specifically to work on hitting over the top. I think it's something that we in Ireland could definitely learn from  in India, everyone is encouraged to try things and if they don't work then there is no shame because it's a lesson learned.

In Ireland, however, especially with winter nets, there doesn't seem to be enough emphasis put on anything: bowling machines are set up for the standard front drive; batsmen play too much within themselves because they desperately want to make an impression and get picked for that team and a net is just a net. Here, given that we might bat for up to forty minutes at any one time, we are encouraged to try different approaches or techniques.

I can vouch for everyone when I say that the strides made within some people in the last few days will prove just how beneficial this attitude can be. Aside from cricket, we don't find much time to do a lot else. Six hours of training in the Indian heat drains you unbelievably and most are in favour of dinner followed by bed in the evening. Exciting stuff, I know.

Tonight we had a wander around MG Road, the main shopping street in Pune, with little or no success. It's hard to describe the sights you might see on a typical Indian street, they really do have be seen to be believed. Families living right next to your feet, children begging literally in a hole and then there's the traffic...which is a free-for-all: no rules, complete chaos and somehow no accidents.

So despite the illnesses, things continue to improve in cricketing terms and I hope that they shall keep going that way for the next four days. We've worked hard this entire week, we're tired but no one can deny the benefits are showing already.

Eoghan Delany