The countdown for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has started. India has to play a 5-match Test series on Australian soil from 22 November 2024 to 7 January 2025. The first match of the series will be played at Optus Stadium in Perth. For this match, Team India held its first practice session at Optus Stadium on Tuesday (19 November). During this time, all the players were seen in great enthusiasm and were seen preparing vigorously. But during the first practice session of Team India in Perth, something happened due to which the players had to leave the field.
According to Rev Sports, Devdutt Padikkal was the first player to reach the field during the first practice session at Optus Stadium in Perth. After this the coaching staff and some players were seen. Both Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli had a short chat with the curator and after that the warm-up started. During this period, Team India players also played football. After this, fielding coach T Dilip conducted fielding practice, which included picking and throwing with one hand. Players also practiced slip catching.
After fielding practice, Team India players were seen batting in the nets located just outside the Optus Stadium. Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan and Ravindra Jadeja batted one by one during this period. During this, players like Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj practiced batting for some time.
During this practice session of Team India at Optus Stadium in Perth, rain was also disrupted. Virat Kohli continued to bat even after the rain increased, but later he decided to leave the field along with the other players. During this, he was seen running with the other members.
Looks even more like this is the top 6 based on how they went in the nets before rain halted practice. Virat Kohli wasn't keen to stop batting even as the rain got heavier before he had no option but to run off with the rest of the team #AusvInd https://t.co/vW7drdxJ0t
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) November 19, 2024
Before the rain, Virat Kohli focused more on cut, pull and backfoot punch on the green top. The backfoot cut is not one of Kohli's strengths, but he was seen doing it to deal with the bouncy pitches of Australia. Apart from this, some cover drives were also seen from his bat, for which he is known.
