A day and a half after their chastening defeat, some of India’s cricketers hit the nets at Eden Gardens for an optional training session on Tuesday, the scheduled final day of the first Test against South Africa.
Five batters/all-rounders — Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel and Sai Sudharsan — were joined by Akash Deep as preparations for the second Test, in Guwahati from Saturday, took early shape.
Skipper Gill doubtful
There is no official word on Shubman Gill’s availability for a match India must win to square the series and add to their tally of World Test Championship points. Should Gill, who left the field after facing just three deliveries in the first innings with neck spasms, be ruled out, it will mark the Test captaincy debut of Rishabh Pant in Guwahati’s debut as a Test centre. Gill has been central to India’s plans since taking over as captain from Rohit Sharma ahead of the tour of England, where he celebrated his coronation with four hundreds on his way to 754 runs. Last month against West Indies, he backed up a half-century in the first Test with a hundred in the next in Delhi, and was sorely missed in both innings in Kolkata.
Left-handers Sudharsan and Padikkal are the reserve batters and one of them should, in all likelihood, step into the breach should the skipper be rendered unavailable. That will mean India’s top order will become even more left-heavy; in the second innings when Gill did not bat, KL Rahul and Jurel were the only right-hand batters in the top eight, something that played into the hands of accomplished Protean off-spinner Simon Harmer and part-timer Aiden Markram. India can also turn to Nitish Kumar Reddy, back after being released for two one-dayers against South Africa ‘A’, or summon a specialist right-hand
bat as cover.
A steady diet of turn was the flavour of the nets at Eden, even if the quality wasn’t in the Harmer-Keshav Maharaj league and the practice pitches bore little resemblance to the outwardly benign 22-yard strip used for the first Test.
Not much net gains here
Maybe, India’s batters would have been better off batting on that unpredictably dual-bounced pitch in an ‘open nets’ session because beyond feel-good, they would not have gained a great deal from Tuesday’s hit-out.
