Subhayan Chakraborty, Adelaide
After the Indian top order failed against Australia in the first ODI in Perth, the focus shifted to Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, as the Men in Blue trained at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday ahead of the second ODI, scheduled for Thursday.
With rain being an issue in Adelaide on Tuesday morning, India were supposed to train in the indoor facility at the Adelaide Oval. However, the ground staff were prompt in getting the outdoor nets ready as soon as the rain stopped upon the team’s arrival at the venue. Rohit was the first to hit the nets, followed by Iyer. Soon, Gill and Kohli too joined them.
With wet patches posing a slight concern around the bowlers’ run-up area, the pacers decided to keep it light. Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh bowled, but only for 15 minutes, against Iyer, Gill and Rohit before joining the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna at the gym.
Kohli, after warming up with a few deliveries, asked the throwdown specialists to come full throttle at him. What followed was 45 minutes of high-intensity, fun batting with Kohli locked in to deliver his best. He kept talking to himself and the throwdown personnel throughout the session. It wasn’t a 10/10 hit-out for Kohli, with multiple edges and a few mistimed shots, but what was refreshing to see was that he didn’t get irritated with those mistimed strokes. Rather, he focused on timing the next delivery better. There were some crisp drives and stellar pull shots as the veteran batter spent exactly 45 minutes at the nets. After registering his first-ever ODI duck on Australian soil, Kohli will want to score some runs in the second ODI.
For Rohit, he looked in brilliant touch. While there were some edges, overall it was a positive net session for the Indian opener as he focused more on timing the ball rather than muscling it. The former Indian captain, although in a quieter mood on this tour, was interchanging with Gill, and the duo was seen sharing technical inputs during their session. The focus was again on hard lengths after Josh Hazlewood troubled the opening duo with his steep bounce. After completing his net session, Gill was seen having a long chat with batting coach Sitanshu Kotak before heading towards the dressing room. Continuing his immense work ethic, Gill then went straight to the gym to complete his day.
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer, after being peppered with short deliveries by the Aussie quicks in the opening ODI, focused on fine-tuning his game against high-pace short deliveries. While he was pulling the ball well most of the time, there were a few instances where he looked uncomfortable against steep bounce.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir was heavily involved in the session, having multiple discussions with different players and also discussing batting technique with a few.
India are scheduled to train on Wednesday morning in what will be their last practice session of the ODI leg.
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