India brace for Mitchell Starc threat

London, June 5

The Indians are taking the Mitchell Starc threat very seriously and if one goes by their second training session here ahead of the World Test Championship final, they are yet to decide between Ishan Kishan and KS Bharat as their wicketkeeping choice.

Australia trained in the morning in cold and overcast conditions, but the Indians brought sunshine to The Oval when they turned up in the afternoon session. Though it was an optional session, the majority of the members showed up, barring Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and reserve player Suryakumar Yadav.

In the two-and-a-half-hour session, skipper Rohit Sharma closely tracked the proceedings with coach Rahul Dravid and only took throwdowns after all the main batters had a long hit in the nets.

While Aussie pacemen Scott Boland and Pat Cummins can do a lot of damage with their seam bowling, the Indians spent most of their time playing left-arm pace.

Squad member Jaydev Undakat, net bowler Aniket Choudhary and a local pacer gave the batters plenty of practice with their left-arm bowling. Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Shubman Gill were the first ones to get a hit. Virat Kohli hit some balls against the spinners before moving to the adjacent net to face Mohammed Shami and Unadkat. Delhi offie Pulkit Narang, one of the net bowlers travelling with the side, bowled a long spell, with the batters using him to prepare for the tougher battle against Nathan Lyon.

India need to decide between two spinners or a fourth pace option, and there were no hints today about this. Ravindra Jadeja had a bowl while Ashwin only came out to bat.