India vs Australia: Virat Kohli & Co sweat it out in first training session at the Gabba

Under the watchful eyes head coach Ravi Shastri, the Indian cricket team held its first training session at the Gabba on Sunday. Brisbane will play host to the first T20I of the three-match series which is scheduled to be played on Wednesday.

The Indian players were pictured sweating it out in the nets ahead of the first clash of the two-month long tour. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey and Rishabh Pant batted in the nets to familiarize with the conditions. The quartet will form a formidable batting line-up for the visitors in the forthcoming series.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was too seen padded up while Umesh Yadav was pictured trying out shot in front Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant. Before leaving for Australia, Kohli had mentioned the importance of contribution from the lower-order and that must be why these front-line pacers were spending time batting in the nets.

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“The lower-order contribution will be crucial as we saw in England. Their lower order contribution was much better than ours and that made the difference in the series. That is where we want the guys to be fearless,” Kohli told reporters in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, coach Ravi Shastri has backed India to learn from their mistakes and do well in Australia. During the first press conference after landing in the country, Shastri said: “We have spoken about seizing the big moments. If you look at the Test matches, the scoreline really doesn’t tell you the real story. There were some real tight Test matches and we lost some big moments badly, which cost us the series at the end of it. 

“It could have been an hour in a session over four days whether it was SA or England. Either as a batsman or a bowler and see what happens after that,” the coach said in his team’s defence.