Virat Kohli during the Indian cricket team training session© X (formerly Twitter)
India face Bangladesh in the first Test match in Chennai starting Thursday and the Rohit Sharma-led side is currently taking part in a camp at the M Chidambaram Stadium. The Indian cricket team players took part in an intensive training session on Monday but there was some reason for concern. According to a report by Sportstar, star batter Virat Kohli found it difficult to bat against Jasprit Bumrah and tall net bowler Gurnoor Brar. Bumrah kept moving the ball away from Kohli before bringing one into the batter which breached his defense. Bumrah broke into an appeal but Kohli indicated that it was missing leg-stump.
Kohli also found it difficult to play the 6 feet 4.5 inch tall pacer Gurnoor Brar who was included in the camp in order to replicate the threat of Bangladesh’s six foot five inch tall pacer Nahid Rana. Kohli looked to take him on off the front foot but the extra bounce continued to bother him throughout the session.
Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant and pacer Mohammed Siraj too faced local bowlers and significant amount of throwdowns.
The practice pitch at the main square offered a decent amount of bounce.
India will have two more practice sessions scheduled before the series opener against Bangladesh, who are riding on the confidence of their series sweep in Pakistan.
Most players in the playing eleven select themselves. The Chennai surface usually favour the spinners and there is likelihood of India going into the game with three spinners and two pacers.
The spinners expected to feature are Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav while Bumrah and Siraj will share workload in the pace department. Axar Patel, despite his impressive all-round returns across formats, may have to sit out.
On the batting front, Pant is expected to make his Test return after a gap of almost two years. Dhruv Jurel, who impressed his debut series against England, will be benched in that case.
(With PTI inputs)
Topics mentioned in this article
