The Indian team conducted an extensive four-hour practice session on Tuesday at the Adelaide Oval, as they gear up for the second of the five Test matches at the picturesque venue, starting December 6, which will be a day-night affair. The focal point at the India nets was skipper Rohit Sharma, who batted in two lengthy stints, attempting to turn his fortunes around with the bat. It was an open-to-public session where scores of fans, mostly Indians, lined up to watch their favourite stars in action. Although there were a couple of instances when a few players looked visibly upset by some of the hooting by fans, especially when they demanded certain shots from certain players, it was still a terrific event for the fans, who could watch the Indian stars closely. Notably, the first net where fans lined up was barely 5 meters away.
It hasn’t been a good year for Rohit in the longest format of the game so far, with the Indian skipper averaging just 29.40 in 21 innings. In what was his first match since landing in Australia, Rohit was caught at slips for just three runs in the warm-up match against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra. Due to KL Rahul’s solid start to the tour as an opener when Rohit missed the Perth Test, the Indian skipper is likely to bat in the middle order, as was the case in Canberra. This was evident from how the batting order shaped up at the nets on Tuesday.
The veteran batter was the first to walk into the stadium, an hour earlier than the scheduled time for India’s practice session, along with Rishabh Pant, Akash Deep, and a few support staff members. Both Rohit and Pant hit the nets straightaway, with the former starting by taking throwdowns. While there weren’t any notable changes in his stance or backlift, Rohit was more focused on leaving the balls and playing as close as possible to his body. After a while, assistant coach Abhishek Nayar stood at the adjacent nets, constantly communicating with Rohit as he continued to bat. With the sun and shadows creating patterns on the pitch, it was sometimes tricky to spot the ball, but the Indian batter managed the session well. Yes, there were a few hits and misses, but that could be expected when facing the pink ball. On the other net, Pant played in his trademark fashion, not afraid to give it a good hit if the ball was on his radar. As Akash Deep tried to test Pant with a few spicy deliveries, Yash Dayal and Navdeep Saini also joined them. With live grass on the practice nets, both Rohit and Pant enjoyed facing the pacers and throwdowns in what was a challenging yet fruitful session for the duo.
After around 40 minutes, the Indian players, now joined by Rohit and Pant, assembled on the main ground with fans filling up the Chappell Stand. After spending a few minutes warming up and stretching, they were divided into two teams for a round of foot-volley, a highly popular game among cricketers. Confidence and camaraderie were visible within the group as they thoroughly enjoyed the warm-ups before hitting game mode.
Following this, the players headed towards the nets again, this time in full swing. Some fans from the stands rushed towards the nets, and a few even lined up behind the nets, an area cordoned off for accredited media, but were soon cleared by the security staff.
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In those four nets, there was a clear indication of how the Indian batting order would shape up in Adelaide. Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul started at one net, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli paired up in another, while Rohit and Pant took charge at net number three, with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar in the fourth. In all four nets, batters left most of the deliveries, especially those in the fourth stump channel, something the Indian batsmen will have to be careful about, particularly against the moving pink ball.
Kohli and Gill’s net session produced some cracking strokes, including a stunning cover drive from Kohli, as the fans erupted with a roar. Gill, after returning to form, looked solid, and the duo had a good battle with both Akash Deep and Harshit Rana. Both Akash and Harshit seemed to have found the correct length with the pink ball, consistently hitting the four-meter length and making it rise from thereon. Out of all, the most impressive was Mukesh Kumar, who, as part of the traveling reserve, kept testing Kohli by moving the ball both ways. Among main bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah, who has created a different aura among the Aussies, operated on a different level with both Kohli and Gill leaving most of his deliveries.
As was the case in Rohit’s first stint at the nets, during his second stint, the ‘Hitman’ also focused on playing the ball close to his body and leaving most deliveries going away from him. However, for anything banged short, Rohit was quick to pounce, cracking several exquisite pull strokes. There was one instance where a few fans demanded pull shots from Rohit, and the Indian skipper signaled them to keep quiet and let the players focus. Later on a few players, including Pant, Mohammed Siraj, and others, walked up to some fans to sign autographs and take selfies.
Gill even walked out to bat under lights for a while, continuing to fine-tune his game. Most importantly, he didn’t look troubled regarding his thumb and batted fluently for almost two hours in total.
It was arguably the longest net session for the Indian team in the last couple of years as they continued to gear up for the much-anticipated pink-ball Test.