Debasis Sen, London: Virat Kohli led Indian cricket team had their first training session since arriving in London on Saturday. The Men in Blue trained at the Merchants Taylor school cricket ground situated near Moore Park. But the main attraction in today’s session was the presence of Arjun Tendulkar. Arjun, who is now in England turned up for bowling at nets to Indian batsman. He had a long discussion with coach Ravi Shastri as well. Later he rolled his arm at MS Dhoni, skipper Virat Kohli and other Indian batsmen.
The Indian players arrived at the venue, which is situated an hour drive from Marriott around 12pm local time. Merchant Taylor school boasts of having the top facilities including the practice pitches. The Australian team, which was trounced 0-5 in ODI series against England, also trained here few days back.
The players had their lunch in the dressing room on arriving at the ground. Alisha Chinai’s famous Made in India number was being played. Thereafter the players headed for training. The team had a special training session as they were divided into three groups.
At first group 1 headed to the main nets where the fast bowlers like Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Hardik Pandya bowled at the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. Rohit looked supremely fit and is all set to open the batting with Dhawan against Ireland.
In the Group 2, fielding coach R. Sridhar was seen giving fielding drills to Sidharth Kaul, Dinesh Karthik and others. And in the final group fit again India skipper Virat Kohli faced spinners at a different net while KL Rahul took throws downs from Raghavendra and Sanjay Bangar.
After facing the pacers; Rohit and Dhawan walked in to face the spinners while Virat & Rahul faced the fast bowlers in the main net. Virat, who is coming back after a neck injury looked at ease. He was in a jovial mood, even trying to imitate Dhawan’s batting. All the players went through some fitness drills under the watchful eyes of strength trainer Shankar Basu.
The practice session went on for a good 3 hrs. The team will head for Dublin tomorrow morning.