Oct. 7: It appeared as though the showers would rob Indians of their practice session, but the rain stopped as quickly as it started. After that the hosts looked like men on a mission as they got into the grind.
Apart from first Test hero V.V.S Laxman who stayed away from practice to give sufficiant rest to his troublesome back, Pragyan Ojha was the only other player to give Thursday’s practice session a miss.
After sitting out in the first Test, Murali Vijay and S. Sreesanth, who are likely to replace Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma in the playing eleven, had a long session. Under watchful eyes of bowling coach Eric Simons, Sreesanth had a go at the batsmen for close to an hour. Opener Vijay too appeared keen to get a feel of the ground and middled the ball with ease. Other players including Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid went through their regular practice drills.
Meanwhile, Bengaluru has been witnessing rains for the past few days, especially in the evening, thereby affecting the preparation of the pitch. The Karnataka Cricket Association is hoping that the sun will be out on Friday, eve of the tie.
“We are hopeful that the sun will come out on Friday. Else, the pitch will be on the slower side on the first day and will improve as the game progresses,” said Narayan Raju, chief pitch curator.