India nets in Pune: Focus on tackling spinners as Risbabh Pant, Shubman Gill sweat it out without discomfort - Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles

Left: Shubman Gill, Source: BCCI. Right: Rishabh Pant. Source: BCCI

Subhayan Chakraborty in Pune

Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli were among the first to bat at the nets at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. The session followed a brief stint by pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, as India prepared for the crucial second Test after trailing 0-1 against New Zealand in Bengaluru. The spotlight was on Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul due to concerns over Pant’s right knee and Rahul’s batting form leading up to the Pune Test. While Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, and Akash Deep bowled at one net, the emphasis of the session was on countering various spinners, around a dozen of them present at the venue.

With Pant unable to keep wickets in Bengaluru following a blow on his knee while keeping in the first innings, there are some doubts whether he would be risked for the second of the three Tests against the Black Caps. Pant had a long batting stint in the nets, facing spinners, throwdown specialists, pacers and even bowling coach Morne Morkel.

It was mostly stand and deliver stuff from Pant as he took the spinners to the cleaners, executing his trademark slog sweep sixes to perfection. He batted without any visible discomfort but it is understood that a call on his playing XI status will be taken closer to the game with the Indian team scheduled to train again on Wednesday morning. Notably, Pant didn’t have any strapping on his right knee and underwent a wicket keeping session with head coach Gautam Gambhir taking charge of the session alongside T Dilip for around 20 minutes.

“Rishabh is pretty good. I think Rohit (Sharmna) touched on it the other day. He was having a little bit of discomfort at the end range of his movement with the knee. But fingers crossed, he’ll be good to keep in the Test as well,” Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate told the reporters on Tuesday.

While Pant batted for around an hour, there was KL Rahul batting in the adjacent nets. There has been intense scrutiny over Rahul’s form in the longest format of the game and the experienced batter had to face extreme social media backlash following a poor show with the bat in his home city of Bengaluru. Rahul looked in decent touch as he tackled the spinners without any major concerns but was troubled by Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna on quite a few occasions while also facing the throwdown specialists as he missed a few deliveries rising from a good length spot.

Ten Doeschate minced no words in the press conference as he said that Sarfaraz Khan’s stellar 150-run knock, and Shubman Gill’s return to fitness have increased the competition for the spot in the middle order. It will be a straight face off between Sarfaraz and Rahul for the playing XI spot in Pune unless the team management decides to rest Pant and make Rahul keep wickets.

“Yeah, there’s no point in sugarcoating it, there’s a fight for a spot,” ten Doeschate told the reporters on Tuesday. “Sarfaraz was obviously brilliant in the last Test. I went to KL after the last Test (and) said how many balls do you play at (and) miss at? He didn’t play at (and) miss at one ball and that’s what tends to happen when you’re not getting runs. It’s not like we’re worried about his form. If you go on just the past three months since Gauti has been in here, he’s keen to give him (Rahul) as much rope as we can. We have a lot of faith in him.

“But at the same time, it’s a very competitive environment, with Sarfaraz getting 150 plus runs (222 not out) in the Irani Trophy final. The decision will be what’s best for the team, but we’ll certainly back all the guys in,” he added.

Notably, Sarfaraz Khan, who became a father on Monday, was not present at the practice session on Tuesday and will join the team on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Washington Sundar, has linked up with the squad and was seen bowling for close to a couple of hours alongside Ravichandran Ashwin.

“We’ve had Washy around the white-ball squad for a while and [we] like the way he operates,” ten Doeschate said. “And it’s also nice to see guys are getting rewarded for Ranji Trophy performances as well. So hopefully that sends a good message out to the other guys and it’s certainly not a desperate measure. We’ve certainly got a lot of faith in the spinners that we have, and we just want to make sure we’re absolutely prepared for the conditions and if that does mean taking the ball away from the left-hander, we want that option.”

There were four practice nets available for the practice session and the division of bowlers were pretty interesting to note. At net number one, only pacers operated – a few net bowlers, Prasidh, Harshit and Akash. Net number two had a couple of local spinners, Washington Sundar, Ashwin, Axar, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. Net number three had only net bowlers, who were spinners, and net four had throwdown specialists. All the batters interchanged the nets with special emphasis on playing spin bowling.

Rohit and Kohli were much more focused on solidifying their respective defence but also playing the ball more under their eyes. There were many sweep shots during their hour-long session. Whereas Jaiswal and Gill took down the pacers but were playing mostly down the line against the tweakers. For Pant, it was mostly smashing the spinners out of the park while Rahul was closely monitored by ten Doeschate during his batting stint.

The likes of Axar Patel, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Sundar also had a hit at the nets. Gill, who was one of the first ones to have a hit at the nets, had another session with ten Doeschate and Abhishek Nayar throwing some short of the length deliveries to him. In between the two sessions, Gill, who is set to feature in the Pune Test, had a short catching session with fielding coach T Dilip.

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