Team India had an extensive training session in the build-up to the first Test against Bangladesh with all 16 squad members sweating it out at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Monday.

Following a day off, the Indian players took part in their third training session,
since their arrival here last week, for more than three hours. The first Test begins
on Thursday.

As is often the case, Virat Kohli was among the first set of batters to hit the nets. In the adjacent net was southpaw Yashasvi Jaiswal as both he and Kohli faced Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin.

The next set of batters included skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Sarfaraz Khan. The captain focused on playing spinners, keeping Bangladesh’s slow bowling attack in mind.

India will have two more practice sessions scheduled before the series opener against Bangladesh, who are riding on the confidence of their series sweep in Pakistan.

Most players in the playing XI select themselves. The Chennai surface usually favour the spinners and there is likelihood of India going into the game with three spinners and two pacers.

The spinners expected to feature are Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav while Bumrah and Siraj will share the workload in the pace department. Axar Patel, despite his impressive all-round returns across formats, may have to sit out.

On the batting front, Pant is expected to make his Test return after a gap of almost two years.