Vaibhav Tripathi, Colombo
India turned up at Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC) for the second consecutive day for a three-hour practice session, which was held in the afternoon. The focus, much like on the opening day, was once again on countering spin.
There was a change in the sequence of the practice. On the first day, KL Rahul was the first to hit the nets alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, but this time they started against spin rather than pace. Kuldeep Yadav bowled to both in the same net as Ravindra Jadeja, Saransh Jain and Manav Suthar.
Kuldeep beat Jaiswal on a couple of occasions, while Saransh also looked threatening against the left-hander. Rahul batted fluently against the spinners, using the depth of the crease to play off the back foot. He regularly employed the square cut and back-foot punch against spin. Suthar deceived him in the air on one occasion before Saransh beat him soon after. Both Indian openers batted for around 40 minutes against spin before moving on to throwdowns. Jaiswal then had a separate session with the team’s throwdown specialists, who were instructed to bowl short.
Shubman Gill had a little scare when he walked over to team physio Kamlesh Jain and was seen getting his right thumb strapped after being struck while facing Gurnoor Brar. Once the strapping was complete, the India captain continued batting without any visible discomfort. Brar bowled alongside Mohammed Siraj and Auqib Nabi, with the trio bowling for around 45 minutes before padding up and having their time with the bat at nets.
Gill initially batted against the fast bowlers for around 30-40 minutes before switching to the spinners alongside Devdutt Padikkal. Compared to the previous day, Gill was content to work on his defence rather than looking to take the aerial route. Padikkal’s footwork also looked much improved from the first day’s session.
On the opening day, it was Kuldeep who did not bowl a single delivery, while in India’s second practice session it was Prasidh Krishna who did bowl at the nets. Much like Kuldeep’s case, Prasidh took part in the warm-ups, fielding drills and even had a batting stint, but did not bowl.
Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant began with throwdowns before facing the spinners. Both wicketkeeper-batters were aggressive against the net bowlers, particularly Pant, who struck several big shots straight down the ground. Pant also appeared to be in a jovial mood and shared a few laughs with bowling coach Morne Morkel.
Of all the batters, Jurel had the longest batting session. After finishing against the main bowlers, he continued batting against the local net bowlers. Head coach Gautam Gambhir was once again hands-on, regularly chatting with players between sessions while also sharing a few smiles with Jadeja.
At the end of the practice session, Rahul was seen working on his sweep shots in the rough, with Gambhir and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak assisting him with throwdowns.
Fielding coach Shubhadeep Ghosh also put the players through close-in fielding drills, with Gill, Rahul, Padikkal and Jaiswal all taking part.
This was India’s final practice session before their three-day warm-up match against SLC XI, the squad for which was announced earlier in the day. The intensity of the session remained high, but the atmosphere within the camp appeared relaxed, with everyone looking upbeat ahead of the practice game.
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