Ahead of the crucial two-match Test series against South Africa, the Indian men's cricket team on Tuesday began its practice session at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, where the first match of the series will be played from November 14 to 18.Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Sai Sudarshan, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy participated in the optional session.
Shubman Gill spent almost 90 minutes in the nets as he returned to red-ball cricket after a recent stint in white-ball cricket. According to the report of news agency PTI, before batting, head coach Gautam Gambhir and assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak spoke to him near the High Court end. Gill then took part in slip-catching practice and later batted in the nets with Yashasvi Jaiswal.Gill batted first against spin, faced Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar and played shots down the ground with sweeps at times. After this he turned to fast bowling, facing Nitish Kumar Reddy and some local bowlers. A support staff member used the sidearm for throwdowns from a higher release point to provide more bounce and speed. After that, Gill took to the central pitch for about 30 minutes of throwdowns and bowling coach Morne Morkel also bowled to him.Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored 67 and 156 for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy match against Rajasthan, also spent a long session on the central wicket, where he faced Morkel and throwdowns and played drives and pulls.Sai Sudarshan also batted for a long time. He scored 84 runs in two unofficial Test matches for India A against South Africa A. The team management continues to try him at number 3. In Tests, however, he has yet to make it happen, with only 61 against England in Manchester and 87 against West Indies at home so far in Tests.Among the fast bowlers, only Jasprit Bumrah bowled. He kept his workload light, bowling at two stumps for about 15 minutes and targeting the off stump.
South Africa is preparing with a focus on spin
South Africa also trained on Tuesday after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. With captain Temba Bavuma back fit to lead the team for the first time since the World Test Championship final win in June, South Africa held a training session with the full squad. The visiting team worked on playing spin and spent the session on plans to counter the Indian spinners.
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