Rohit, who seems to be settling into his middle-order role – he let KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill face the new ball in the adjacent nets while he started batting against spin – attempted to play a pull shot but it didn’t come off and the ball cleared the top flap of the pad and hit him on the knee. He needed some treatment – elevating the leg and putting an ice pack on it – and seemed in good order by the time the session was winding up, walking around and having little chats with his team-mates and coaches.
Akash Deep took a hit to the arm while batting and at the press conference on Sunday, he said neither blow was anything to worry about. “Such blows are common when you play cricket,” he said when asked about him and Rohit . “I think this (practice) wicket was for white ball which is why the ball kept low at times. But these blows are common in training. There are no major concerns because of that.”
With the MCG nets offering public vantage points, there were several fans who came around to watch India train. A little girl who kept trying to catch their eye was unimpressed when she wasn’t able to. “If they can’t wave, they can at least smile,” she said.
With the series at 1-1 and considering they haven’t gotten the better of Australian conditions in the first innings, India’s focus was understandably elsewhere. There was a fair bit of green grass on the pitch to be used for the Boxing Day Test, but with it being four days away, it is likely some of it will be shaved off. The MCG has had a drastic change in character since the last time India were here – from batting-friendly to bowling-friendly.
Akash Deep had a nice battle with Steven Smith as well, beating his bat on both edges, and receiving praise both on the field and later at his press conference. Despite bowling well, he only got one wicket in that first innings. “At the time, I felt like, the skill with which I bowled, a lot of the times he was getting beaten on the inside edge and the outside edge and I felt that sometimes ‘what is this luck that I have, I can’t get him out’. But then I realised that the wicket is not in our hands. What we have in our hands is just bowling well. Bowling in the right areas.”
