Virat Kohli had only walked out of the nets some five minutes prior to making his way back to the middle. It was his second hit in the middle of the WACA following on from his second stint in the nets at the back of the WACA.
He was still in his training top, the tastefully lilac-lavender shirt that the Indian team is sporting currently, and didn’t even bother changing out of it as he joined the rest of the players and the umpires to the middle.
Kohli’s first go with the bat on the opening day of India’s centre-wicket practice session that they are referring to as match simulation had lasted around 15-20 minutes. He’d got his turn after KL Rahul had copped a painful blow to the right elbow and left with the physio before Yashasvi Jaiswal flashed at a wide, full delivery and was snapped up at second slip.
There was that characteristic energy in Kohli’s stride as he joined Shubman Gill in the middle. And he also looked very keen to drive. The pitch at the WACA had some spice in it, the kind where the fast bowlers were kept interested in spell after spell to hit that hard Aussie length, which they did. Mukesh Kumar and Prasidh Krishna started off proceedings impressively and were backed up perfectly by Navdeep Saini and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
It was Mukesh who seemed the biggest challenge for Kohli, like he was for the rest, getting the ball to skid off the surface and angling away from the right-hander. Off back to back deliveries, Kohli played and missed followed by making a late decision to shoulder arms, where the ball kissed the bottom of his bat before falling safely to the ground in front of the slip cordon.
Kohli did pull off two exquisite drives, one through cover which was trademark Kohli, in between multiple attempts at forcing the ball off the front-foot. He then perished after leaving his bat hanging to a ball on around a virtual fifth stump from Mukesh and was snaffled at second slip.
In between that dismissal and him having a second go in the lilac top, Kohli made two half-hour visits to the nets at the back of the WACA. Each time he had a couple of throwdown specialists with him for company.
The former captain certainly looked in better rhythm this time around as the players commenced the third session of the day. While he continued to bat outside his crease, and also didn’t mind pressing on to his front-foot repeatedly like he prefers doing on Australian pitches against the seamers, there was better judgement of both length and line. His hands stayed closer to the rest of his body, rather than reaching out instinctively at length deliveries, and bat was making much better contact with ball, obvious both in terms of what it sounded like around the empty WACA stadium and also how the ball scurried across outfield. This still wasn’t peak Kohli in terms of fluency, as he did mistime a few of his attempted drives, with the bat either turning in his hand or just making the best impression on the ball. And on one occasion, he kicked the floor while looking unhappy with himself for having squeezed a ball towards mid-wicket while trying to punch it straight down the ground. Once more while trying to force the issue and get at the ball rather than wait for it.
Like in the morning session, he did produce a couple of sensational moments, firstly with a punchy Kohli-esque drive off the back-foot through point for four, followed up by a perfectly-timed pull shot where he swivelled and got into a great position, despite having just complained about the condition of his bat. There was however another flash at a wide, full delivery which flew past gully for a boundary. And after nearly 60 minutes at the crease for this particular hit, which concluded with him giving some mid-pitch tips to Dhruv Jurel, Kohli was done. He spent the rest of the session chatting and laughing away with Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.
Kohli’s bid to get his batting rhythm in order was in keeping with what the rest of his team were up to largely in Perth on Friday (November 15).
Like Kohli, Jaiswal, Gill, Pant and Jurel too had two stints in the middle in between a constant flow of players back and forth from the nets.
Jaiswal stood out with his handling of the short ball, pulling and cutting with great aplomb, before even bringing out the ramp against the seamers in his hit in the afternoon. There were some aggressive flashes outside off-stump that he survived and a few other attractive shots to either side of the pitch, but for the young left-hander, it was more a case of acclimatisation and getting used to the WACA surface. He faced the new-ball in both knocks, as per the simulation strategy, with the batting ordered refreshed once the top eight, which included Jurel, Jadeja and R Ashwin, had come and gone.
Gill had a decent outing too the second time around after looking scratchy in his opening salvo, where he couldn’t get going before getting out to Saini in a fashion many visiting batters do early during a tour in Australia. Just leaving his bat hanging to a short of length delivery, that took a good part of his bat and was caught at gully. It was a fluent Gill who joined Jaiswal in the afternoon session, and this time the drives and the cuts seemed a lot more like what we’ve come to expect from the talented No 3.
Though Bumrah was one of the few players to not bat or bowl on Friday, he was busy throughout. If he wasn’t by the dugout passing on some advice to Krishna at the end of his first spell, he was in the dressing-room having a lengthy chat with head coach Gautam Gambhir. Before picking Ashwin’s brains and finally having a laugh with Kohli and Pant. With no confirmation on Rohit Sharma’s availability yet, the vice-captain has clearly taken up the leadership position for now, on and off the field.
Elsewhere, Gambhir and his coaching cohort spent the day keeping a close eye on their main batting group. The coach, along with Morne Morkel and Abhishek Nayar, also kept himself entertained with an impromptu game of bocce as they walked around the WACA, each rolling the cricket ball they held in their hands and then seeing who had managed to roll it the farthest. To be honest, the rules of their contest weren’t publicised. There was also a moment where there were four separate balls on the field, with the players unsure as to which one they were supposed to use, before finally settling in for a brand-new Kookaburra. The fly spray made recurring appearances on a warmish afternoon where the Perth flies did have a field day. But more importantly, so did the spray-on sun-screen, all part of getting used to Test cricket in Australia, and preparing for the unique challenges that lie ahead for the Indian team. And they’ll be back again over the weekend for more of the same with some of the other batters in the Test squad like Sarfaraz Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran having a go. But expect Kohli to have another go and also take centre-stage as he tends to do in this part of the world.