The Indian cricket team has begun its preparations for the New Year's Test against South Africa in a bid to square the two-match series. After being mauled by the Proteas at the SuperSport Park in Centurion by an innings and 32 runs, the Newlands Test in Cape Town presents the Rohit Sharma-led side with yet another opportunity to register gains on the World Test Championship (2023-25 cycle) points table.
Rohit and his troops have already started preparing for the 2nd Test and were seen doing the hard yards in the nets in what appeared a high-octane training session. "#TeamIndia are back in the nets and prepping for the 2nd Test in Cape Town," BCCI captioned the training video.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was seen facing the new ball to fine-tune his prep ahead of the series decider. He also took throwdowns and tried to ride the bounce while facing plenty of short-pitched stuff. The 22-year-old was also seen engaging in long conversations with head coach Rahul Dravid.
On the other hand, star allrounder Ravindra Jadeja who was unavailable for selection in the first Test due to upper back spasms also participated in the practice session. He spent hours bowling to the batters and then padded up to bat himself.
Jadeja's participation in the training is an encouraging sign as the visitors look to end the series on a high. The loss in Centurion is a difficult pill to swallow but the tourists have to lift themselves and get mentally and physically charged for the challenge that lies ahead.
India’s squad for the 2nd Test:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Avesh Khan
