Indian Team's Training Session
Lacked Intent And Energy

Mumbai: The Emirates flight that landed in Mumbai on a hot Tuesday afternoon, carrying the Australian team, also had two South Africans travelling. Team India coach Gary Kirsten and his assistant Paddy Upton had made their way from Johannesburg via Dubai to reach just in time for a net session at a suburban ground

It was an eventful journey considering the l0-odd hours in transit. Things got all the more interesting when the duo made its way straight to the ground, rather hurriedly instead of heading to their five-star hotel suite allocated by the BCCI.

Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Virat
Kohli, Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi and Ravindra Jadeja and captain MS Dhoni were ready for India's first ‘serious’ net session for a series at home after almost a year. Four players -Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma who were part of the Delhi Daredevils squad were missing.

Fifteen minutes of stretching was followed by a game of football. A light batting session took place and soon it was dark enough to pack up.

The Aussies can rejoice, considering that they already reckon their opponents aren't in supreme form. To see the coach arrive from South Africa half-an hour before the net session; to watch one of India's best middle-order batsman just back from injury having put on weight would've been a joyous sight for Ponting. If the Indian attack was deemed to be struggling and Venkatesh Prasad, according to the BCCI, wasn't capable enough of curing the ills, the situation has now gone from bad to worse. Right now, there's no bowling coach at all, which hardly makes the situation any better. Ditto in the fielding department where, as noticed On Tuesday, the players didn't even have somebody to throw balls at them.