Bowlers back to basics at India nets

After the demoralising defeat against Pakistan, it will be interesting to see how the Indian players shake off the seeds of doubts sowed in their minds. Sanjjeev K Samyal reports.

After the demoralising defeat against Pakistan, it will be interesting to see how the Indian players shake off the seeds of doubts sowed in their minds. Each player who struggled in Monday's warm-up game reacted differently.
Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan, the bowlers who were taken to the cleaners by Kamran Akmal & Co, chose to take the day off and relax at the hotel. They were among the five players who skipped the optional training, Virender Sehwag and R Ashwin being the others.

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Separate nets
The rest of the team slogged in right earnest at the Nondescripts Cricket Club ground here. A separate net session was held for pacers L Balaji and Ashok Dinda under the supervision of bowling coach John Dawes and head coach Duncan Fletcher. Balaji's flop against Pakistan has brought Dinda into contention for the third pacer's spot and the session looked like a straight contest.

Among the top-order batsmen, Gautam Gambhir looked keen to try out his pull shot, and understandably so after the poor execution of the shot cost him his wicket against Pakistan. But he miscued a couple against net bowlers.

Yuvraj Singh chose to take throw downs from assistant coach Trevor Penny.