The Indian team has upped the intensity of their preparations for the first Test of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia, which will be played at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur from February 9.
India head coach Rahul Dravid said that the current emphasis is on the fielding and catching side of things as the performance of India's slip fielders has been an area of concern in the past and that process is on to strengthen the slip cordon.
"Everyone looks in really good shape. It's nice to get the Test team together again. We had a lot of white-ball cricket over the last month or so. Some of those boys, shifting from white-ball to red-ball, it's nice for them to just have that extended period in the nets. The surfaces have been really good as well,” Dravid said in a video shared by BCCI.
India are conducting their training sessions at the VCA Stadium in Civil Lines with the first Test scheduled at the VCA Jamtha Stadium on Thursday.
“Fielding side of things as well, that has been really important as well. The close-in catching which we think is going to become a really important part of the series. There's a lot of emphasis and focus on close-in catching, slip fielding, things like that when you are on the road all the time and don't get time to build and work on those things,” Dravid said.
Also Dravid said there is hardly any time to work with the players and hence it was quite exciting to get this one week ahead of the series.
"We have had a couple of really long sessions. I think it's really exciting as a coaching staff because you don't actually get times like this due to the amount of cricket we play. You don't get time actually to do a camp or you can get an extended period of time where you get to work with players and build up towards the Test series.
Just to be able to get this week has been really exciting for us and we, as coaching staff, have been planning and preparing for this for almost a month or so on what we will do in these four-five days. I'm glad it has all come together really well,” he added.
"It's been really fruitful and the boys are looking good. Hopefully two or three days more into the Test match and then we can take it from there,” he signed off.
Here is the video:
(PTI inputs)
