KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were spotted training in the nets in Mumbai on Monday (August 3), barely 24 hours before the Indian team’s scheduled departure for Sri Lanka. With the city under overcast skies and experiencing intermittent rain, the two openers chose to practise at an academy in Bandra that has a makeshift roof, allowing training to continue even during the inclement weather.
The two India regular openers were seen training at the Wings Sports Centre in Bandra West, a multi-sport facility with a specialized cricket nets managed by former India cricketer Jatin Paranjape, for the last few days. While private net sessions ahead of an overseas tour are nothing out of the ordinary, what stood out about these sessions was their complete focus on facing spin.
A group of Mumbai spinners, including Mumbai stalwart Tanush Kotian, bowled to the two openers, who would normally be expected to spend time preparing against the new ball. However, with the two-Test series in Sri Lanka expected to be dominated by spin, Rahul and Jaiswal’s choice of bowlers to face was not surprising. All types of spinners – left-arm spinners, leg-spinners and off-spinners – were among the group.
“They’ve been coming here regularly over the past few days. Jaiswal was here two days ago, KL came yesterday, and today they trained together,” Paranjape, a former India selector, told Cricbuzz. “It’s not surprising that they were practising against spin, given the conditions they expect to encounter in the series.”
Added Kotian, “I train regularly at Jatin Sir’s academy. It’s one of the few facilities where we can practise during the monsoon. The wicket there offers plenty of turn, and Yashasvi and KL have been training with us over the past few days.”
Interestingly, Kotian, who is thought to have been unfortunate to have missed out on the selection for the Sri Lanka tour, will still travel with the Indian squad. It is learnt that he and Harsh Dubey are among the spinners chosen by the selectors to accompany the team as net bowlers. They will join the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain, who are all part of the squad.
Meanwhile, most of the Sri Lanka-bound players have assembled in Mumbai, and the contingent is scheduled to fly to Colombo on a charter flight late on Tuesday evening. It is, however, not entirely clear whether Sai Sudharsan, whose selection was subject to fitness clearance, will travel with the squad on Tuesday. Sources close to the left-hander remain confident that he will join the team, if not on Tuesday, then later this week.
India will play two Tests in Sri Lanka — the first in Galle from August 15 to 19 and the second in Colombo from August 23 to 27. Before that, they will play a three-day warm-up match in Colombo starting on August 7.
