The city may be in the grip of an unseasonal heatwave, but it wasn’t enough to jeopardize the start of India’s long home season as Rohit Sharma and his men hit the nets at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Monday ahead of their first Test against Bangladesh, beginning Thursday.
India’s top-eight batters as well as its frontline bowlers who are likely to figure in the first-team, had an extensive day out in scorching conditions - with temperatures soaring to 36 degrees Celsius.
While the hosts limbered up with some fielding drills – slip and boundary catching – for about 45 minutes, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli were soon in the nets for the next three-fourth of an hour, taking turns to face the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep on a red-soil practice pitch.
The prospect of a match in Chennai would typically evoke the idea of batters preparing for a ‘dustbowl’ or a low and slow pitch that takes turn from the opening day. However, with the team only using the red-soil wicket for practice, and the pacers extracting its bounce to trouble the batters, India could be in for a reversal of its strategy at home to counter Bangladesh’s familiarity with spin-friendly conditions.
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Bumrah hit his straps right away, moving the ball away from a good length to prompt Kohli to shoulder arms. Jaiswal, meanwhile, cut a sorry figure against the pacers, playing and missing outside off as Bumrah and Deep tormented him from around the wicket.
After moving the ball away, Bumrah brought one into Kohli from a middle-stump line to beat the flick and broke into a ‘celebrappeal’, calling for a review as he skipped back to the bowling crease. Kohli retraced his steps behind the nets, indicating the ball was missing leg-stump.
Kohli was also troubled by Gurnoor Brar’s extra bounce on a few occasions as he took him on, off the front foot. Brar, the lanky Punjab pacer, has been with the team to help simulate the bowling action and bounce the host will be up against when Bangladesh’s six-foot-five-inch-tall pacer Nahid Rana steams in.
If India was wary of the prospect of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan’s trial by spin in Chennai, Kohli and Jaiswal allayed those fears with an assured display of footwork and aggression against Jadeja and Ashwin.
Kohli stepped out to counter Ashwin’s flighted delivery and trusted his backfoot play to counter Jadeja’s flatter trajectory. Jaiswal employed the sweep abundantly and looked determined to swing his arms against the premier spin duo.
Kohli bowed out of his session by stepping out to both spinners and launching them down the ground, though rued missing a pull off Brar before stepping away. Jaiswal, too, chanced his arm against the tweakers before returning to the pavilion with a head full of probing questions about his boyish flirtations outside off.
Returning to Test cricket after almost two years, Rishabh Pant’s hors d’oeuvre was a typical assault on spin – a slap over point and a slog-sweep to the midwicket fence.
Dhruv Jurel also had a hit, alternating with Pant, but is unlikely to start in the first Test with the latter being the preferred wicketkeeper’s choice.
India’s Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Sarfraz Khan during the first practice session ahead of the IDFC first Test match against Bangladesh at Chepauk Stadium. | Photo Credit: RAGU R/ The Hindu
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Jadeja and Ashwin had a feel of the red-soil wicket, while Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal and Kuldeep Yadav, along with net bowlers, including Yudhvir Singh, operated from the Media End.
The main pitch was under wraps for about an hour in the morning before a tinge of grass was revealed on what looked like a predominantly red-soil wicket.
However, a few deliveries that kept low and beat him creased Ashwin’s brow in the closing minutes of the practice session, but that sight would have elicited more amusement than exasperation for the off spinner.
The Indian team, which arrived in the city on Thursday, was joined by Sarfaraz Khan on Monday morning but he didn’t have a hit.
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