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Sanju Samson sent home from India's Asia Cup squad before Pakistan Super 4 match, Bumrah troubles Rohit, Kohli in nets
HT has reliably learnt that once Rahul joined back and proved his fitness in the nets, Samson, who is not a part of India's World Cup squad was sent back home.
Sanju Samson has been sent back home as he is no longer required in India's Asia Cup squad. The Indian team management took the decision after KL Rahul joined the squad ahead of the Super 4 stage of the tournament. Samson was picked as Rahul's backup as the latter was not available for the group-stage matches against Pakistan and Nepal due to a niggle. Rahul, however, recovered from that and joined the Indian squad after getting a green signal from the National Academy Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
On Thursday, in his first session with Team India after a long injury lay-off, Rahul batted for long hours in the indoor nets in Colombo. There were a few eyebrows raised as the right-hander did not keep wickets. But it was mainly due to a lack of space in the indoor net area. There were no injury concerns as he moved nicely while batting.
All the doubts about his fitness were erased on Friday when Rahul kept wickets for close to 90 minutes under the lights. Mostly clear weather on Friday, allowed the Indian players to train outdoors at the R Premadasa Stadium ahead of their Super 4 opener against Pakistan on Sunday.
HT has reliably learnt that once Rahul joined back and proved his fitness in the nets, Samson, who is not a part of India's World Cup squad was sent back home.
The long keeping drill, however, cost Rahul a batting opportunity. When he was just gearing up to bat the skies opened up and India had cut their practice session short.
Bumrah troubles Rohit, Kohli; Axar bats for long
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel and others who had missed the optional indoor session on Thursday, all trained with full intensity on Friday till the weather permitted. According to Sports Today, Bumrah bowled his heart out and even beat Rohit and Kohli on a few occasions.
India's other two leading pacers Shami and Siraj also had a long session. So did Axar Patel with the bat.
Vimal Kumar, a freelance sports journalist, reported that India put special emphasis on giving batting practice to the lower-order. The likes of Shardul Thakur, Axar, Bumrah spent a lot of time with the batting coach honing their skills. The inability of India's bowlers to conjure crucial runs at the backend of the innings has been one of the major talking points in the last few months.
The part-timers Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma (although not in the running for a spot in the XI) bowled quite for a few overs, signalling a change of mindset in the Indian camp.
Special emphasis was given on training against left-arm seamers keeping in mind the threat of Pakistan speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi, who took four wickets in the group stage match against India.
