Indian team gets down to business

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After a light, two-hour practice session on the first day of the three-day preparatory camp here at the Cricket Club of India, the Indian team got down to business on Saturday. The 15-member squad arrived in two batches and batted as per the batting order likely to play the Ahmedabad Test with Yuvraj Singh taking the No. 6 slot.

Zaheer Khan, who was bowling military medium on first day in order to find his rhythm, ran in hard and bowled at full steam. Zaheer bowled in short spurts on the centre wicket where the Indian batsmen batted in pairs. The morning session was a busy one as Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag began the proceedings facing pacers Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. The two were then replaced by Cheteshwar Pujara and Sachin Tendulkar.

The Little Master, who batted for a long time in the middle, also had the longest batting session in the nets, lasting up to an hour. Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh too had a decent stint in the middle and the left-hander attempted a variety of strokes including the reverse sweep against the likes of Pragyan Ojha.

Kohli, meanwhile, looked to be timing the ball neatly and was fluent on both sides of the wicket.

Coach Duncan Fletcher and bowling coach Joe Dawes kept a close watch on the fast bowlers. Umesh Yadav, who bowled for almost an hour in the morning session returned back for more spells in the post lunch session. Interestingly, Dhoni continued to roll his arm over for the second straight day bowling a mix of medium pace and off spin.

Having missed the opening day’s session, Harbhajan Singh, who was part of the second batch bowled at Dhoni, M. Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane.

Compton, Trott hit half-tons

Meanwhile, in the England camp, Nick Compton and Jonathan Trott struck unbeaten half-centuries in the the final warm-up game on Saturday. Compton hit 54 not out and Trott was unbeaten on 61 as the tourists reached 118 for no loss in their second innings by stumps on the third day of the four-day match against Haryana in Ahmedabad.

Brief scores: England XI: 521 & 118/0 (N. Compton 54 n.o., J. Trott 61 n.o.) vs Haryana: 334 all out in 112.4 overs (C. Saini 35, T. Bresnan 3-66, S. Meaker 3-74, Samit Patel 2-39).