Ahead of the vital two-match Test series against South Africa, the Indian men’s cricket team began their practice session on Tuesday at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, where the first match of the series will be played from November 14 to 18.Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Sai Sudharsan, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy took part in the optional session.Shubman Gill spent nearly 90 minutes in the nets as he adjusted back to red-ball cricket after recent white-ball games. Before batting, head coach Gautam Gambhir and assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak spoke with him near the High Court end, news agency PTI reported. Gill then joined slip-catching drills and later batted in the nets with Yashasvi Jaiswal.Gill first batted against spin, facing Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar and played shots on the ground with sweeps at times. He then moved to pace bowling, facing Nitish Kumar Reddy and a few local bowlers. A support staff member used a sidearm for throwdowns from a higher release point to give more bounce and pace. After that, Gill shifted to the central pitch for about 30 minutes of throwdowns with bowling coach Morne Morkel also bowling to him.Yashasvi Jaiswal, coming off scores of 67 and 156 for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy match against Rajasthan, also had a long session on the central wicket, where he faced Morkel and throwdowns and played drives and pulls.Sai Sudharsan also batted for a long period. He scored 84 runs in two unofficial Tests for India A against South Africa A. The team management continues to try him at No. 3. In Tests, though, he is yet to make it his own, with only a 61 against England in Manchester and 87 versus West Indies at home to show so far in Tests.Among the fast bowlers, only Jasprit Bumrah bowled. He kept his workload light, bowling at two stumps for around 15 minutes and targeting the off stump.
South Africa prepare with focus on spin
South Africa also trained on Tuesday after arriving from their hard-earned 1-1 draw against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. With captain Temba Bavuma fit and back to lead the side 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.
