Indian cricketers slog it out in nets

 Fit-again Jadeja batted for over an hour in the morning session

n By Paritosh Pramanik

Aware of how humongous this Border-Gavaskar Series will be, Indian cricketers started their preparations for first Test at the right earnest at Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Civil Lines Stadium on Friday.

The Australians are calling the four-match Test series ‘Final Frontier’ or the ‘Everest’ and winning it means a lot to the Pat Cummins-led team who haven’t won a Test series in India since 2004.

The Indian think-tank too are taking it seriously as a spot in the ICC Test Championship final is at stake.

Australia are leading the chart with a 75.36 percentile (136 points) and have confirmed their place in the final. 

India are at the second position with 58.93 PCT (99 points). They need to win the series 4-0 to ‘book’ a final date with the Australians.

On Friday, with an eye on the Test Championship final  spot, Indian cricketers batted behind closed doors at the old VCA Stadium. The first Test gets under way from Feb 9.

With fans and an eager media not allowed to watch the proceedings, Indian cricketers went into the routine under the watchful eyes of the coaching staff led by Rahul Dravid.

According to sources at VCA, the team did their nets session in two batches.

“#TeamIndia have begun their preparations for the Border Gavaskar Trophy ahead of the 1st Test in Nagpur,” tweeted BCCI.

In the morning, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin were at the Stadium for the nets.

“Rahul, Virat and Pujara all batted for long hours, may be for around one-and-a-half hours,” said one of the sources. 

According to information, many Vidarba Ranji Trophy bowlers including Lalit Yadav, Rajneeesh Gurbani and others were used by the Indian batters in the morning session.

The evening session was occupied by India captain Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav. All had a gruelling batting session.

Jadeja, who is returning from an injury break, too batted for long hours. There were several throwdown sessions as well and Indian cricketers batted at the centre wicket to get feel of a match.

Premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who would be an important cog in Indian set-up, bowled in the nets. Also did Axar Patel and part-timer Washington Sundar.

As per schedule, India would be performing the same routine on Saturday as well and will then take a break on Sunday. From Monday onwards the training session would shift to the main stadium (Jamtha Stadium).