Rishabh Pant, Team India return to training ahead of England Test series
Jul 27, 2021
Durham [UK], July 27 : Virat Kohli-led Indian side on Tuesday returned to training ahead of the five-match Test series against England.
India and England will lock horns in the Test series from August 4 in Nottingham. Last week, the Indian side played a three-day warm-up game against County Select XI.
The batting line-up failed but KL Rahul along with Ravindra Jadeja got into the groove ahead of the first Test.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday shared pictures from the training session of the visitors.
Rishabh Pant returned to the team's camp for the England Test series last week after recovering from COVID-19. The wicket-keeper batsman also trained for the England series on Tuesday.
"#TeamIndia back at it and having a centre wicket training at Durham Cricket Club ahead of the five-match Test series against England," BCCI tweeted.
During the warm-up fixture, Rahul had donned the wicketkeeping gloves as well because Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha were unavailable because of Covid-19 protocols.
"It's a good opportunity to test my body and wicketkeeping skills. The added responsibility made me really sore (laughs) but apart from that, it was good time out and it gives me good opportunity to stay in the game," Rahul told bcci.tv.
"Especially when it is a practice game, sometimes it can feel longer. But when you're wicketkeeping, you need to stay focused and you're in the game all the time. So, I quite enjoyed it," he added.
Rahul had played his last Test back in 2019 against West Indies. During India's tour of England in 2018, Rahul had played a knock of 149 at The Oval and this knock had come on the back of some poor scores in the earlier Tests.
"When I got dropped in 2018, I had to go back and discuss with coaches, watched a lot of videos to see where I was faltering and try to correct that. I'm happy, time off from Test cricket has helped. Like they say, failure makes you strong, makes you more focused and determined about the game. It's no different for me. I'm looking forward to the opportunities, trying to stay a lot calmer and more disciplined," said Rahul.
"I remember The Oval being the best batting pitch we got in the whole series. At the back of my mind, I also knew it was the last game of the series and I hadn't done well in the series. So, it was only realistic that I would have probably not gotten a chance in the next series," he added.
