India holds a training session in Durham ahead of 5-Test series vs England
India’s England cricket team got to work as they held their first training session at the goal centre at Durham Cricket Club on Tuesday.
India’s top-order batsmen Captain Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane had a hit on the centre wicket along with Rishabh Pant, who recovered from Covid-19 and joined the Test squad in Durham last week.
India and England will play a series of 5 Tests in Nottingham, London, Leeds and Manchester from August 4 to September 14. The India-England showdown will mark the beginning of the second cycle of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC).
The visitors played a three-day practice match against County Select XI at this venue earlier this month and will next play an intra-squad game fro July 29 before taking on England in the Test series.
“#TeamIndia back at it and having a centre wicket training at Durham Cricket Club ahead of the five-match Test series against England,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) posted on social media.
Pant, who contracted coronavirus on July 8 during the team’s break in London, joined India’s bio-bubble in Durham on July 22.
Notably, the Indian limited-overs side in Sri Lanka was dealt with a huge blow on Tuesday after the BCCI confirmed that Krunal Pandya tested positive for Covid-19 which led to the postponement of the second T20I in Colombo. The match was scheduled to start from 8pm IST this evening but has been pushed back by a day to July 28.
8 players identified as ‘close contacts have been put in isolation and the entire Indian contingent will now undergo RT-PCR tests today to ascertain any further outbreak in the squad. Notably, Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav were supposed to join the Indian Test side in England from Sri Lanka but they might have to delay their departure now if they are part of the 8-member list isolating in Colombo.
India had won the ODI series 2-1 and were leading 1-0 in the T20I series. The start of the ODI series was also postponed after the batting coach and the video analyst of the Sri Lankan team had tested positive for Covid-19.
