It has now been more than a month since the forgettable World Cup final, but it still surely hurts. But Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two battle-hardened professionals, know the importance of moving on and so will not let the past haunt them.

There's a job at hand: the Indian cricket team has never won a Test series in South Africa in 31 years and Rohit and Kohli, in the twilight zone of their careers, would want to tick that box.

While Kohli, who came back from London after a short break with family, joined the training after half an hour, Rohit did look a bit more relaxed after shutting himself off for three weeks.

The two batted in different nets and the centre practice strip, and also faced throwdowns for more than an hour.

There was hardly any conversation between them even when they took short breaks in between.

Unlike the World Cup nets when there was a mix of both focus and laughter, the only sound that made one sit up and take notice was that of the red leather colliding with the willow.

Coach Rahul Dravid had a hawk-eye on the centre nets at the Supersport Park.

The first to enter the nets were Rohit and young Yashasvi Jaiswal, they were seen taking turns while facing Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur. The signature Rohit came to the fore when he slog swept Ravichandran Ashwin deep into the grass embankments.

As the skipper was in the midst of his first stint, in walked Kohli and had a brief chat with coach Dravid as he watched Rohit's batting.

After some time, King Kohli walked out of the main arena and padded up for the throwdown nets where Rohit and Jaiswal would join in a few minutes.

Both defended well, left a lot of deliveries on length and drove occasionally, exchanged nets and watched a bit of each other's batting.

Rohit later was seen explaining the body balance while hitting the pull shots as Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, the "Rohit-Kohli" duo of future listened intently.

The team looked intense at practice. There's a lot at stake in the next two weeks.

With inputs from PTI