Kohli Stays at the Crease, Bumrah Hits Full Throttle in India’s First Practice Session
The Indian cricket squad started getting ready for a two-Test series against Bangladesh on Friday. Pace maestro Jasprit Bumrah bowled with all-out intensity while batting maestro Virat Kohli spent around 45 minutes in the nets.
With the first Test match between Bangladesh and India about to begin on September 19, the whole team, led by captain Rohit Sharma and captain Virat Kohli, convened at the MA Chidambaram Stadium for a private training session.
This would be Gautam Gambhir’s first home assignment as head coach. Morne Morkel, the legendary bowling coach from South Africa, and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar were also present.
Using pictures from the first practice day, the BCCI announced, “The countdown starts as Team India begin their preps for an exciting home season.”
The pictures displayed the whole team listening intently to Gambhir, his backroom team, and captain Rohit.
A local source told PTI, “Virat was there for 45 minutes and Bumrah also bowled full throttle.”
Virat has arrived for the first Test by plane straight from London.
In a PTI video on Thursday night, Rohit, who was wearing a yellow shirt, was seen being led by security officers out of the airport. Kohli had arrived from an early morning flight from London.
On Thursday, players such as Bumrah, KL Rahul, and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant arrived in the city. Sarfaraz Khan, a batsman for India B, will be added to the team following the Duleep Trophy match at Anantapur.
After a much-needed vacation of over a month, the players are back on the field and will try to move past the heartbreak of losing the ODI series against Sri Lanka in August, which was Gambhir’s first game in charge as head coach following his replacement of Rahul Dravid.
Seeing how Rohit’s team plays against Bangladesh, who are riding high after recently defeating Pakistan 2-0 in the Test series, could be interesting.
As India prepares for a demanding 10-match Test season that also includes a three-Test series at home against New Zealand and the five-match Border-Gavaskar series later this year in Australia, crucial World Test Championship (WTC) points are at risk in the two-match series.
With 68.52 percentage points, India is now leading the leaderboard; Australia is in tight second place with 62.50 points.
After defeating Pakistan by 10 wickets in the first Test and mounting an incredible comeback in the second, when wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das struck a century to lead the team to victory, Bangladesh has surged to fourth place with 45.83 percentage points.
The second Test of the India-Bangladesh series will be played in Kanpur from September 27.
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