Debasis Sen, Manchester: A bright sunny day welcomed Virat Kohli and his team here on Sunday as they trained at the Old Trafford Cricket Stadium, venue of the first T20I against England. The Indians who arrived on Saturday from Dublin, had their first full practice session at the venue. The last time both these sides played against each other was during the fourth test match in 2014.
The practice started from 9 am and went on till 12 pm. The cricketers after going through a few catching and fielding drills under Sridhar and Bharat Arun, headed straight towards the net practice area.
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were seen batting first at nets. All the batsmen were asked to bat at three nets . Sanjay Bangar and Raghavendra gave throwdowns at first nets. The wrist spinners Chahal and Kuldeep bowled in the second nets while the fast bowlers Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled at the third nets.
Kohli and Dhoni both batted together at the nets. While Virat was seen taking throw-downs from Bangar and Raghavendra, Dhoni faced the spinners first. Virat almost took throwdowns for half an hour before heading to the next nets to face the spinners. Coach Ravi Shastri observed him (Kohli) closely as he faced Siddharth Kaul and two local fast bowlers.
Hardik Pandya bowled for a long time at both openers along with Bhuvi and Umesh. He walked into bat at one of the nets after Dhoni and Kohli finished.
Jasprit Bumrah, who will not feature in the T20I’s was seen during the practice session. Both Bumrah and Washington Sundar will not feature in the 3 match T20 series against England.
All the cricketers after they finished the net session gave a sprint test in front of Shankar Basu, part of a fitness drill.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan was seen taking short ball practice from R Sridhar. The fielding coach was seen giving the left hander practice with tennis ball.
Meanwhile, the All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Krunal Pandya as Washington Sundar’s replacement in India’s T20I side and Axar Patel in the ODI side for the upcoming limited-overs series against England.
Sundar suffered an injury to his right ankle during Indian team’s training session at the Malahide Cricket Club, Dublin on June 26, 2018. He subsequently underwent scans and was seen by a specialist. The BCCI Medical Team will continue to monitor his progress
Jasprit Bumrah has a fractured left thumb and has been ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against England. Bumrah suffered the injury during India’s first T20I against Ireland. The selectors have named Deepak Chahar as his replacement in the T20I side.