The important practice sessions ahead of the three match one-day and 5-match T20I series against the West Indies have already begun for certain India batters or players. The first game of this white ball
series is slated to begin on September 27 at Kerala’s famed Thiruvananthapuram that’ll be hosting the maiden fifty contest of this West Indies tour. But that’s to be followed by a game each at Odisha and Punjab next. So which players got their time at the net and what did they exactly practice in order to get going against an opposition that last managed to defeat India here in the country back in 2019.
First and foremost, Shubman Gill & Yashavi Jaiswal batted together in the 1st net.
Will this be the real batting combination in each of the three games that lie ahead against the West Indies, we are yet to know. But it seems as though that it could be unlikely whether there will be a tinkering in the already established Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill batting pair or maybe the Gill and Jaiswal is also a contingency batting plan that is being prepared for the said series.
Next up, it was the time of the current most important Rahul of Indian cricket since a certain Dravid.
So, KL Rahul batted alone in the 2nd net.
KL Rahul was also seen practicing for the series and in the past half a decade era has been a stable and resilient phenomenon for both red ball and one day white ball format of his country.
Rahul is a middle order white ball one day specialist as far as the present day construct of the team is concerned and he’s going to be looking forward to a series where he can score stable runs in the middle order which can often be a tricky phase to negotiate.
Rahul, who’s been around for over a decade for his services to India will look to be one of the most important middle order players in the 2027 ODI World Cup for his team India.
Kohli the King and Ruturaj came next
Next up one got to see the greatest white ball one day player Virat Kohli and young talent Ruturaj Gaekwad playing together and getting a good session in the third net as seen at Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.
Now, having said that, an important aspect of their session together was that they were seen rotating the strike after facing few balls. That was some good practice and handy in terms of handling the changing vagaries of the game situation that could arise in the series versus the Windies.
Isn’t it?
Furthermore, another element in their time batting together as a duo was that both Virat Kohli and Ruturaj also had key sessions in the spin department.
They faced spin (of both hands) for a significant amount of time. If that’s not important, then one reckons, what is? The likes of newcomers to the game such as Windies’ Vitel Lawes would
be keen to play a part on this tour. The young talent from Jamaica has already picked 8 odi wickets from just 5 games making his debut against the BlackCaps recently.
But we also have to think about something interesting from an Indian perspective.
Will Gaekwad get a game soon- we are yet to see?
But the boundless excitement surrounding Virat Kohli in the middle is enough to make the series certainly keenly contested affair. His class, world renowned experience and the tireless quality to go after runs is second to none. He recently formed a wonderful partnership with Rohit Sharma at Lord’s during a high octane run chase that ultimately didn’t go India’s way.
With the likes of all the important players having gotten their net session, one also got to see the man widely adored as world cricket’s “Hitman” getting some light hits. But he didn’t really bat a lot as such- Rohit Sharma.
But then great players don’t need to necessarily break a lot of sweat, do
they? Hitman already has a splendid one day record against the Caribbean side. The right handed great of the game has struck over 1600 runs against this very opponent with 3 centuries to this name.
