Sehwag, Gambhir yet to join India camp
Mumbai: With the seven-match ODI series against Australia just five-days away, Team India got down to business soon after arriving in the city. MS Dhoni’s boys had a training session at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) indoor cricket academy at Bandra-Kurla Complex on Tuesday evening.
Indian coach Gary Kirsten conducted the two-hour training session, which started with a round of football followed by an hour of nets practice. Though four players Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma were missing from the action and are expected to join the team on Wednesday.
It was a treat to watch Sachin Tendulkar batting at the nets. He walked on to the ground with a few brand new bats and got down to business straight away. It started with Kirsten throwing at him from a short distance. The feet movement was precise and the bat came down in that beautiful arc to meet the ball in the middle. No edges, no lofted shots; each ball went along the turf nicely.
Later, medium pacer Munaf Patel, debutant Sudeep Tyagi, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Sigh and Yuvraj Singh bowled at the maestro in an intense half-an-hour batting session. After a wide array of shots that went along the ground, Sachin ended his batting session with a flurry of lofted shots. He stepped out and hammered Harbhajan Singh over his head on three occasions and carted Praveen Kumar over extra cover. In the entire session, there was neither a false shot nor his wickets were disturbed even once.
Making his debut at the India camp, Tyagi would have surely impressed captain Dhoni with his pace and bounce. On one occasion he even rattled his captain’s stumps. Presence of a bowling coach would have surely helped the young lad to pick up some crucial inputs just ahead of the series against Australia.
Kirsten paid special attention to young all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who batted for over an hour to some rising deliveries. With Australian bowling attack, which includes speedsters like Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle, Dhoni will need to shore up his batting line-up. Lower down the order, Jadeja gives that option to Dhoni and can also come handy with his left-arm orthodox spin.
However, there was no fielding session on day-one of the camp, one department where Indian team needs to get its act together. With no fielding coach, now the onus is on Kirsten to ensure that his boys stay sharp on the field.
