In his days of captaincy, he used to be the cynosure of all eyes at the training sessions, and once again, Virat Kohli stole the limelight as he addressed his teammates here on Thursday. After losing to Adelaide by as much as a demoralising 10 wickets, sight of it all laid out for the tourists to find a bit of inspiration needed heading into what promises to be a significant third Test of the series, with these youngsters on board for whom the words of wisdom could not have come from a better authority than ‘King’ Kohli himself. Team huddles before the start of the training session have been a feature for years now, and Kohli used to do a lot of talking during his day.
But it was a question of taking a back seat once he left captaincy; however, since the skipper Rohit is also under tremendous pressure after four consecutive defeats, he has to take the lead on the eve of the match commencing here on Saturday, having played the most Tests for India.
Standing by the side of vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah, Kohli was seen addressing the group quite animatedly, listening to him the rest-mostly Rohit-in rapt attention. Rohit Faces New and Semi-New Ball in Nets Unlike previous occasions before the pink ball Test, Rohit looked in far better shape during his net session at the Gabba, but question marks hover over whether he would be back to opening the innings or stay put at No. 6, which isn’t his preferred spot.
On that day, while KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal braved the new ball at the nets again, Rohit encountered a slightly older Kookaburra at the start. Having faced that for some time, he did change nets with Rahul and also played a brand new red cherry for a while.
The pitch that is termed as The Gabba has decent coverage of grass, because it has ever been an old-age Australian wicket in which seam and bounce have offered themselves freely. Rohit’s weakness is against the deliveries that move as compared to the bouncy ones, it will be interesting to see whether or not he confronts taking it head on.
Post his session, Rohit and head coach Gautam Gambhir were immersed in an extended discussion, and from a distance, it looked as if it was about technicalities. Gambhir was seen preparing for some shadow drives as Rohit gazed at him ever so intensely.