K.L. Rahul practised just sweeps, reverse sweeps and slog hits in the side nets and Shreyas Iyer faced a barrage of short balls during India’s training session on Thursday ahead of the opening game against Australia at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
Taking throwdowns — twice within a gap of 15 minutes — Rahul played attacking shots, often forcing the bowlers to take evasive actions.
For Shreyas, the focus was more on his ability to play the short-pitch deliveries.
He then took a 15-minute break before getting back to work on his pull and hook shots with Dravid using a racquet and a few tennis balls to simulate steep bounce.
Post his second break, Shreyas faced throwdown specialists Raghu (right-arm), Dayanand Garani (right-arm), and Nuwan Seneviratne (left-arm) for a quick hit before finally packing up.
The intensity was high among all the batters despite the hot conditions in the afternoon training session, which lasted nearly three-and-a-half hours.
R. Ashwin was the first to enter the nets, and batted alongside Jasprit Bumrah for nearly 20 minutes, exchanging the position every five minutes.
While the fast bowler focused more on timing the ball, Ashwin looked to hit the ball hard.
The bowlers, on the other hand, were trying to preserve their energy and only had short bursts at full intensity. The fast bowlers were trying to bowl defensive hard lengths, while operating with the semi-new Kookaburra ball. Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey was constantly talking to pacers Mohammed Shami, Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and all-rounder Hardik Pandya as they tried to challenge the batters with match-simulation field settings.
While Shreyas was challenged with mid-on and mid-off up, Hardik, when he came into bat, was challenged with fielders at long-on and long-off. The session ended with Hardik having a hit along with Shardul Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav in the adjacent nets.
