The Indian team on Thursday tried a training drill that vaguely resembled a wrestling bout, with a pair of two players each seemingly striving to outdo each other at the MCG.
The talking point of the day’s training session ahead of the Boxing Day Test was all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Put through a fitness test, Jadeja was asked to run between the wickets carrying his bat.
Jadeja, who has 213 wickets and 1,869 runs from 49 Tests, missed the first Test in Adelaide because of a concussion and a hamstring injury he suffered during the first game of the T20I series.
One of the finds of the ongoing tour, left-arm quick T. Natarajan, also had a decent time out at nets, often beating the outside edge of the bats of both stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara.
Set to be a part of the XI in place of Virat Kohli, who’s left on paternity leave, KL Rahul also had a long hit at nets, as did Rishabh Pant.
Rahul also had a round of discussion with head coach Ravi Shastri, while the woefully out-of-form Prithvi Shaw too batted for a while at nets facing Kuldeep Yadav.
The coaching staff — Shastri, Bharat Arun (bowling coach) and Vikram Rathour (batting coach) — also had a long chat with Rahane during the training session.
Randiv help for Aus
The Australians too underwent an intense nets session at the MCG. In order to counter Ravichandran Ashwin, who troubled them in the first Test, they called up former Sri Lanka off-spinner Suraj Randiv to bowl at the likes of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.
Randiv, who once denied Virender Sehwag, who was batting on 99, a century by deliberately bowling a no-ball in an ODI at Dambulla in 2010, has been living and playing in Melbourne for three seasons.
The tall Sri Lankan bowler is somewhat similar to Ashwin who doesn’t get much turn but bowls accurately at batsmen. The Australians struggled against Ashwin at Adelaide looking to play him from the crease but failing.
Warne ‘blows’ hot
Spin legend Shane Warne believes Australia will “blow away” India at the MCG as the visitors are still a “bit shocked” by the Adelaide humiliation.
“I think Australia are probably going to blow them away,” Warne, who claimed a record 708 Test wickets for Australia, told Fox Cricket.
“Having said that, India do have some class players like Rahul and young (Shubman) Gill, who too will come in. (Ajinkya) Rahane is also a class act and we know what (Cheteshwar) Pujara can do,” the former leg-spinner added.