In their first practice session under new head coach Gautam Gambhir, the Indian cricketers, especially T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and star all-rounder Hardik Pandya, were in a jovial mood. The break after the T20 World Cup appeared to have done a world of good to the cricketers, making a comeback to the side for the Sri Lanka tour that features three T20Is and three ODIs. The tour will begin with the T20Is on July 27 before the ODIs kick in on August 2.
In many ways, this Sri Lanka tour marks a new chapter in Indian cricket. After the highs of winning the T20 World Cup – their first ICC trophy in 11 years – Rahul Dravid’s tenure as the head coach ended. Captain Rohit Sharma and stalwarts Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirements from the shortest format.
This left the selectors and new coach Gambhir with the immediate task of appointing a new captain for the T20Is. It was not easy, but they went ahead of Suryakumar Yadav instead of Hardik Pandya, the vice-captain of India’s T20 World Cup-winning campaign, as they felt Surya’s chances of staying injury-free and being available for maximum matches were better than Hardik’s.
There was no sign of any tension regarding that during Inda’s first nets session in Pallekele on Tuesday. The training session was mostly around running, catching and one-on-one interactions. Captain Suryakumar Yadav was also involved in an interaction with the players. Gambhir was seen giving some batting tips to Sanju Samson and had a chat with all-rounder Shivam Dube.
Shubman Gill and Yashavi Jaiswal, who are set to be India’s openers in place of Rohit and Kohli, had a long hit in the nets. Hardik spent some time practising match simulations with new assistant coach Abhishek Nayar. He is one of the two assistant coaches appointed by Gambhir to his support staff, with Ryan ten Doeschate being the other.
It was close to a three-hour-long session for the Indian cricketers and almost all of them took turns to have a crack at the nets.
After the session, the players slowly made their way into the team bus, where the YouTube channel Sports Fact Real captured an interesting scenario.
The players boarded the bus one by one but it was coach Gambhir who took the front seat with Hardik by his side. Gambhir sat on isle seat at the right wing of the bus while Hardik placed himself on the same seat in the left wing. Both of them seemed in a light mood. They even shared a laugh, which signified a great team environment. Abhishek Nayar was sitting right behind Gambhir.
Suryakumar Yadav’s seat was not visible in the video, but it appeared that he sat towards the backend of the bus.