Subhayan Chakraborty in London
It was an optional session for Team India on Tuesday as the visitors stepped on to the iconic Lord’s to start their preparations for the third of the five-Test rubber with the series firmly poised at 1-1.
With not much turnaround time for Lord’s from Edgbaston, there were a few absentees in Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj and Washington Sundar but all eyes were on ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who is set to return to the India playing XI as already confirmed by captain Gill.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir and his support staff were quick to reach the centre square to have a quick look at the pitch, which visibly seemed pretty green, though the ground staff is still working on it before the start of the much-awaited clash. As Gambhir and others took a closer look at the pitch, the mowers were at work, trimming a bit of grass.
The Indian players and coaches then headed towards the nets area, the Nursery, and Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan were the first to pad up followed by Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel. After taking throwdowns, Sai and Karun faced the brunt of a well rested Bumrah as the pacer went full tilt against the duo, who were interchanging after a few balls. Bumrah was moving the ball both ways, leaving Sai and Karun sweating. There was a stark difference of quality between Bumrah and others like Arshdeep Singh, Shardul Thakur and Nitish Kumar Reddy, who were bowling alongside the master.
Bumrah, when bowling and when not bowling, were two different characters. When he was walking back to his mark, he looked in a fun mood and was having constant banters with Arshdeep and Shardul. But as soon as he started his run up, there was a flick of switch and all he wanted to do was get the better of the batter. He was beating the outside and inside edges of Sai and Karun like it was a cakewalk for him and all he did was pass a smile after every such occurrence.
It was full throttle for Bumrah for exactly 45 minutes. After finishing his spell, he had a brief chat with Gambhir before padding up and taking on a few net bowlers for around 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, Gambhir kept a close eye on the nets and had a long 20-minute discussion with Ravindra Jadeja before the southpaw headed to bat. Jadeja faced throwdowns for a bit and looked in good touch.
Notably, England cancelled their training session and press conference on Tuesday. India will have their final practice session on Wednesday at Lord’s before they hit the ground for the Test on Thursday.
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