Team India had its full-fledged training session in Centurion ahead of the Boxing Day Test, which will mark the beginning of the tour. Captain Virat Kohli and head coach Rahul Dravid marshalled the players with the latter giving tips to key batters.
The visitors will begin the tour with an aim to register maiden Test series win in the Rainbow Nation. However, with no warm-up games scheduled, the Indian players have to quickly acclimatise to the condition.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the BCCI posted a video of Team India being escorted in two buses by police vehicles to SuperSport Park, where they were seen being led by Dravid and Kohli onto the ground followed by Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday.
The team had a warm-up session where they did a bit of jogging and stretching before getting down to business. Kohli was seen receiving batting tips from Dravid, with pacer Jasprit Bumrah — returning to play Test cricket after being rested for the two-Test series against New Zealand — going full tilt at the nets.
ALSO READ | Ashes 2021-22: Ollie Robinson Bowls Off Spin in Adelaide | WATCH VIDEO
Mohd Shami, Ashwin and veteran pacer Ishant Sharma too bowled at the nets, with the skipper finally leaving the ground after the session, giving a thumbs up to the players as he hastily made his way out with a huge kit bag lugged on his back.
Posting the video, the Indian cricket board tweeted, “Getting Test-match ready. Snippets from #TeamIndia’s first practice session ahead of the first #SAvIND Test.”
On Saturday, the BCCI had posted a video of the players going for a light workout, which included a game of foot volley.
ALSO READ | Ashes 2021-22: Ricky Ponting Hits Back at Kevin Pietersen Over Nathan Lyon ‘Zero Variations’ Remark
India’s strength and conditioning coach, Soham Desai, had emphasised that after three days of hard quarantine in Mumbai, starting a skill session right away would have been “high risk”, which is why the team had an easy session on Friday evening.
Desai also said that his main task would be to bring the players to peak fitness after three days of hard quarantine in Mumbai, followed by a 10-hour journey to Johannesburg and then another day of hard quarantine in South Africa.
(With IANS Inputs)
Get all the IPL news and Cricket Score here
.