Indian cricketers honed their fielding skills ahead of the warm-up game against County Select XI.
Virat Kohli and company are currently in Durham for a three-day warm-up game against County Select XI, scheduled to start on July 20.
See Also: Rishabh Pant to join Team India in Durham on July 21 after recovering from COVID-19
Ahead of the all-important practice match, the Indian team honed their fielding skills under the watchful eyes of fielding coach R Sridhar.
“Today’s session kicked off with team drills and team competitions. It will activate the team. We began with the catching, direct hits, and throwing accurately to the bowler’s end which got them going. Direct hits are very important even though it is Test cricket,” Sridhar said in a video shared by the BCCI.
“Then we moved on to a game, under-arm throwing — a very underestimated part of cricket. It included speed and agility and changing of direction for the boys,” he added.
“We had two teams with one comprising Virat, Rohit, and others. The other team was taken over by Ashwin and Pujara,” he said.
“Eventually, Virat’s team took the competition with a 10-8 lead. However, Puji and Ashwin were convinced they won,” Sridhar quipped.
Earlier, BCCI’s official Twitter account shared pictures from India’s nets session, in which the likes of Rohit, Kohli, Pujara and KL Rahul were seen fine-tuning their batting skills.
In another tweet, BCCI uploaded pictures of Indian bowlers sweating it out in the nets. Pacers Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj featured in the post alongside veteran off-spinner Ashwin.
After the World Test Championship (WTC) final last month, the Indian contingent was given a 20-day respite from the bio-bubble life.
During the break, however, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and training assistant/net bowler Dayanand Garani contracted COVID-19. The duo hasn’t travelled with the rest of the squad to Durham.
India will be without back-up wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha as well during the three-day practice match in Durham, as the latter has been kept in isolation after being identified as a close contact of the training assistant. Bowling coach Bharat Arun and reserve opener Abhimanyu Easwaran will also remain in isolation for 10 days.
The five-match Test series between India and England is slated to get underway on August 4 at Trent Bridge.