Dubai . Wicketkeeper batsman Lokesh Rahul, who is preparing for the role of Finisher, worked on the Indian team’s skills in the second practice session of the Indian team on Monday before his first match of the Champions Trophy against Bangladesh. Known for his technically strong batting, Rahul focused on playing an aggressive shot. Rishabh Pant is pushing to make a place in the XI and in such a situation, 32 -year -old Rahul appeared to adopt more active and power hitting mentality.
Rahul, who played a fast innings of 40 off 29 balls in the third ODI against England, was seen practicing sixes on almost every ball. Rahul’s role ready to bat at number five or six will be important in the final overs where he may need to speed up the innings and could have been seen practicing ‘range hitting’. Shreyas Iyer, who batted aggressively in the recent series, also worked on his aggressive game.
Opener Shubman Gill, who became the best player of the series scoring ODIs 87, 60 and 112 against England, was seen in a brilliant form and put many great strokes including brilliant drive and bridge. India’s captain Rohit Sharma, who returned to form by playing a brilliant innings of 119 runs in the second ODI against England, also appeared in the rhythm. He practiced late cut and touch shot. Virat Kohli, the mainstay of Indian batting, also spent time to improve his skills. He looked full of confidence while trying to play the ball from between the bat and late.
However, during the training on Sunday, Rishabh Pant appeared struggling after a injury to the knee on Hardik Pandya’s shot. He was seen a little lame. He did not practice wicketkeeping and fielding and when he came to bat, he did not appear in the rhythm. The session started with the ‘Direct Hit’ competition between the three teams. The team led by Rohit included Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas. The team won after the decisive throw of the Indian captain. Team one included Gill, Mohammed Shami, Akshar Patel, Varun Chakraborty and Washington Sundar while Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul, Harshit Rana and Kohli were included in the team two.