After a day of rest and relaxation, Team India returned back to practice at the SCG ahead of their third ODI of the tri-series, against Australia. Although it was an optional session, the team came in an almost full strength, with only Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin staying back.
It was a full-throttle net practice with long batting and bowling sessions for the bowlers and batsmen. The first to use the batting nets were Stuart Binny, Axar Patel and Suresh Raina. Binny started off by facing Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami and looked to middle the ball well.
Axar was up against the slower bowlers – including MS Dhoni who sent down some leggies. Raina batted for about an hour, first taking throwdowns from the support staff members before facing the spinners. He looked aggressive against the faster balls, practicing his on-side play with precision.
Ravindra Jadeja, who is recovering from his shoulder injury, rolled his arm over in the spinners’ net while Ishant Sharma looked very comfortable as he sent down some quick deliveries along with Dhawal Kulkarni.
Shikhar Dhawan, who has been short of runs of late, batted under the close watch of Duncan Fletcher against the fast bowlers. Fletcher observed Dhawan’s feet movement from the short-leg position as the video analyst recorded his time in the nets.
After facing the quickies, Dhawan moved to the adjacent net where the slower bowlers operated. Dhoni gave up the ball after an hour or so and took stance to face the throwdowns. He then made his way where Ishant and Kulkarni were operating.
Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu too had a long stint with the bat against all kind of bowling. After finishing his long spell with the ball, Bhuvi made way to the main field to do various fitness drills with the trainer.
While bowling, he seemed to work up quite a good pace. He kept to back of a length mostly and bowled a couple of really good bouncers. Except Rohit, who missed the session after missing the MCG ODI due to a sore hamstring, all the players known to carry little niggles seemed to have recuperated quite well.
By: BCCI
