Xtra Time Web Desk: What were the major talking points of Team India’s training session at Arun Jaitley Stadium? First and foremost, all-rounder Hardik Pandya was the central focus of the Indian team’s practice session on Tuesday. The all-rounder bowled with full steam after a round of warm-up drills under the watchful eyes of bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.
After bowling alone for a good 20 minutes, Hardik bowled at the nets with Mhambrey keeping a close eye on the pace bowling all-rounder. After the training session, Hardik underwent another round of jogging session with strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai keeping a close eye on the all-rounder.
Stand in skipper KL Rahul gave the optional practice session a miss, Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik all fine-tuned their batting skills.
Hooda and Kishan, in particular, took throwdowns from throwdown specialist Nuwan Seneviratne. Batting coach Vikram Rathour was involved in a deep chat with Hooda with short balls being the focus of drills. Rathour helped Hooda with some technical tweaks to play pull strokes square of the wicket.
After Hooda, Kishan was seen practicing a few pulls before working on his cut shots.
Dinesh Karthik, who is making a comeback in the senior team, looked in glorious touch as he played Umran Malik without much fuss. Umran, though, bowled full tilt for the second day on the trot. However, with India debut unlikely in the series opener against the Proteas, Umran would be keen on improving on a day-by-day basis as he continues his herculean rise in world cricket.
Arshdeep Singh was impressive at the nets too as he was seen nailing a few yorkers with senior pro Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the main ground.
Harshal Patel too joined the team after giving the optional practice session a miss on Monday.