Indian players get into competitive mode

Virat Kohli looked comfortable against the pacers, but fell to the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja. Each batsman was given two chances, and the skipper was taken out by Jadeja on two occasions.

Indian cricket team players during the training camp in the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The Indian Test squad got into moderately competitive mode with a practice game held at Alur grounds here on Sunday. Not much importance was given to the scoreboard; the emphasis was on giving all players some match-practice.

Virat Kohli looked comfortable against the pacers, but fell to the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja. Each batsman was given two chances, and the skipper was taken out by Jadeja on two occasions. The day started with M. Vijay and Shikar Dhawan facing the speedster trio of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. A full set of eleven fieldsmen — including a few promising junior players — was employed to simulate match-situations. Ishant appeared to be working on his bouncers.

After over 30 minutes of pace, the spinners came on. R. Ashwin was his miserly self, while Amit Mishra varied his pace well. Offspinner Jayant Yadav stayed focussed on keeping the ball on a good line and length.

The batters too were allotted a fixed amount of time at the crease before they had to retire. After the openers left the field, K.L. Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha got the chance to have a hit.

A second set of fast men — Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Stuart Binny and Varun Aaron — were later called into action.