Team India welcomed the three missing stars on the second day of their conditioning camp at Eden Gardens here on Saturday.
KOLKATA: Team India welcomed the three missing stars on the second day of their conditioning camp at Eden Gardens here on Saturday.
While Yuvraj Singh had arrived here late on Friday night and came with the team for the morning session of the netson Saturday itself, Delhi batsmen Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambir made their appearance one and half hours late.
Gambir had a bad day against the visiting Pakistanis on Friday while playing for Delhi, managing only four, but Sehwag had given the practice game a miss on account of his father's death last Tuesday. Both arrived early this morning and directly reached Eden from the airport.
Earlier in the day the team started off their session with light fielding drill, before heavy duty stuff was unleashed. First to have a knock at the nets were the experienced opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.
Both looked in ominous touch and were particularly severe on the spinners. The likes of Murali Karthik and Harbhajan Singh took a beating as they were hoicked all over the park by the two masteros. If Sachin and Sourav's form gave the team think tank a sign of relief, off-coloured Bhajji and Kartik will surely give the Indian think-tank some sleepless nights.
With big hitters like Shoiab Malik and Shahid Afridi in the team Pakistan can really go hammer and tong in the middle overs to a toothless spin attack. Among the bowlers Irfan Pathan and RP Singh looked good. The lanky Baroda pacer came into groove and a few of his outswingers troubled Sachin big time. And if Rudra Pratap was tight as ever, S Sreesanth sprayed it all over.
Next to have a go at the nets were Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, followed by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. They too also went heavy on the spinners, Yuvraj and Uthappa clearing the fences time and again. Dhoni looked a lot restrained and may well have thought to don his thinking cap now that he is the captain.
The bowlers followed in to brush up their batting and the revelation was new blood Praveen Kumar. The Uttar Pradesh allrounder who opens for his state was not ready to be left behind and made his aggression very clear from the word go.
Then came in Gambhir and Sehwag and Sachin and Sourav went on to fine tune their slip catching. The Delhi pair had a late net session and Sehwag belted a few of his not so classic off drives much to the delight of the few thousand spectators.
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