Shubman Gill opts for long batting session as Bumrah, Kuldeep and Axar return to training

Skipper Shubman Gill had a long batting stint while the troika of Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel returned to action for India’s final training session here on Wednesday before the first Test against the West Indies.

With 754 runs in India’s last Test assignment in England, Gill was India’s most successful batter in his first assignment as full-time captain but the challenge for him would be to quickly switch from playing T20 cricket with the white ball to get into the Test match groove.

Among the batters named for the two-Test series against the West Indies starting on Thursday, Gill is the only one with no recent experience of playing with the red ball while the rest of the others have had their opportunities.

The other batters in this Indian camp including KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal and wicketkeeper-batters Dhruv Jurel and N Jagadeesan had all featured in the recent four-day unofficial Test series between India A and Australia A.

Even though Yashasvi Jaiswal was not a part of the ‘A’ series, he featured for West Zone in their Duleep Trophy semifinal against the Central Zone and scored a quick half-century (64) in the second innings.

Meanwhile, Bumrah, Kuldeep and Axar, who had taken a break from the team’s first nets session held here on late Tuesday afternoon, were back to training with the red ball following their triumph in the Asia Cup.

Bumrah and Kuldeep had a long bowling session on one of the adjacent pitches next to the main green-top track where India and West Indies will play the first Test starting here on Thursday, while Axar bowled in the nets to the India batters.

It has been a short turnaround time for the Indian players having played the Asia Cup final on Sunday night in Dubai and arriving in Ahmedabad for the first of the two Tests on intervening night between Monday and Tuesday.

India pacers Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, who had a long bowling session each on Tuesday, had batting stints on Wednesday and were later joined by Kuldeep.

India’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar was also present here on Wednesday during India’s training while keeping an eye on the action in the Irani Cup match between last year’s Ranji Trophy winners Vidarbha against the Rest of India team being played in Nagpur.