After a much-needed break, the stars of Indian men’s cricket team are gearing up for a busy red-ball season which gets underway from next week when they take on Bangladesh in the first Test in Chennai. The Test squad was announced earlier this month with no major surprises. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah are part of the squad with left-arm pacer Yash Dayal getting a maiden Test call-up.
The Chennai Test will be India’s first such game after the appointment of Gautam Gambhir as the head coach. And the squad members – barring Sarfaraz Khan and Dayal who are currently playing in the Duleep Trophy – along with the support staff including newly-appointed bowling coach Morne Morkel have landed in the Southern Indian city with the first training session being held on Friday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Kohli Drops Anchor
Batting superstar Virat Kohli reportedly landed in the city at 4 AM IST today after flying in from London and then linked up with his Indian teammates. As per a report in news agency PTI, he spent around 45 minutes at the nets to get back into the red-ball mode. Kohli missed the five-match England Test series at home for the birth of his child. His last Test was during South Africa tour in December-January this year.
Bumrah Bowling at Full Pelt
Right-arm pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be returning to action for the first time since the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in June. The pace spearhead was given an extended break and skipped the Zimbabwe tour (five T20Is) and the Sri Lanka tour (three T20Is and three ODIs). Reports claimed the by the team management wants him fresh for the Test assignments, especially the upcoming tour of Australia later this year.
Bumrah reportedly bowled at full tilt during the practice session. “Virat was there for 45 minutes and Bumrah also bowled full throttle,” PTI quoted a local source as claiming.
Rohit, Rishabh, Rahul Arrive
Rohit, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Bumrah arrived on Thursday night while Sarfaraz is expected to join the team after the conclusion of the second round of Duleep Trophy. He’s currently representing India B in Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh).
India’s Approach in Focus
The duo of Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar has been joined by South Africa great Morkel as part of India’s coaching staff. With the erstwhile coaching staff led by Rahul Dravid stepping away barring fielding coach T Dilip, it will be interesting what approach the Indian Test team adopts against a team like Bangladesh. The visitors will be high on confidence following their historic Test series win against Pakistan recently.
Crucial WTC Points For Grabs
India, two-time runners-up of the ICC World Test Championship, are currently leading the standings for the ongoing cycle as well and are closely followed by current title holders Australia at the second spot. Bangladesh have zoomed to the fourth spot thanks to a 2-0 clean sweep of Pakistan. India are at the top with 68.52 percentage points while Bangladesh fourth with 45.83 percentage points.
After Bangladesh, India will host New Zealand for three Tests before flying to Australia for a five-match assignment.
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