KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were spotted training in the nets in Mumbai on Monday (August 3), less than 24 hours before the Indian team’s scheduled departure for Sri Lanka.
With the city under murky skies and occasional rain, the two openers elected to practise at an academy in Bandra with a makeshift roof, allowing training to continue even in severe weather.
The two India regular openers have been seen training at the Wings Sports Centre in Bandra West, a multi-sport facility with specialised cricket nets supervised by former India batsman Jatin Paranjape, for the past few days.
While private net sessions prior to an international tour are not uncommon, what set these sessions apart was their total attention on dealing with spin.
A group of Mumbai spinners, including Mumbai mainstay Tanush Kotian, bowled to the two openers, who would ordinarily have spent time prepping for the new ball.
However, with spin anticipated to dominate the two-Test series in Sri Lanka, Rahul and Jaiswal’s selection of bowlers to face was unsurprising. The group included spinners of all varieties, including left-arm, leg, and off-spinners.
They had been coming here on a regular basis for the past few days. Jaiswal arrived two days ago, Rahul arrived yesterday, and they practiced together today,” Paranjape, a former India selector, told Cricbuzz. “It’s not surprising that they were practising against spin, given the conditions they expect to encounter in the series.”
Kotian continued, “I train daily at Jatin Sir’s academy. It’s one of the few places where we can practise during the monsoon.
The wicket there has lots of turn, and Yashasvi and Rahul have been practicing with us for the previous few days.”
Interestingly, Kotian, who is regarded to have been unfortunate not to be selected for the Sri Lanka tour, will still go with the Indian squad. They will join the group, which already includes Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, and Saransh Jain.
Kotian (offspin), Vipraj Nigam (legspin), Shivang Kumar (left-arm wrist spin), and Harsh Dubey (left-arm orthodox) are among the spinners chosen by the selectors to accompany the team as net bowlers in order to provide the batters with a variety of spin options throughout the series.
Meanwhile, the majority of the Sri Lanka-bound players have arrived in Mumbai, and the team is set to fly to Colombo on a charter flight late Tuesday evening.
It is unclear whether Sai Sudharsan, whose selection was contingent on fitness clearance, will fly with the side on Tuesday. Sources close to the left-hander are hopeful that he will join the team, if not on Tuesday, later this week.
India will play two Tests in Sri Lanka, the first in Galle on August 15-19 and the second in Colombo on August 23-27. Before that, they’ll play a three-day warm-up match in Colombo beginning August 7.
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