Kohli-Bumrah battle lights up India's 'nets'

Perth: After maintaining a shroud of secrecy around their practice sessions, which had caught the local media by surprise and questioning the visitors' policy, the Indian team threw open its "nets" to the members from the fourth estate, two days ahead of their first Test of Australian summer here on Wednesday.

Shubman Gill, who sustained a hairline fracture during one of those barred-for-media sessions, was a bystander; Yash Dayal, flown in from South Africa as a replacement reserve for the injured Khaleel Ahmed, was steaming in from the word go; Prasidh Krishna was working up good speeds and extracting good bounce all the while giving some nice workout to KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padkkal who was officially included in the Indian squad on Wednesday. 

It was, however, the contest between skipper and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli that caught the attention -- an attritional battle between one of world's most feared fast bowlers and the ageing but superstar batter. There was no winner or loser in this clash, though. While Bumrah beat the right-hander on a few occasions, Kohli managed to middle some with authority as he tested a few bats along the way.

The entire Indian team went through its paces as head coach Gautam Gambhir kept a close eye with his support staff while chief selector Ajit Agarkar and panel member Subrato Banerjee, both former Test pacers, appeared to share their wisdom with Bumrah and Co in between balls.

Prasidh and Harshit Rana are in the running for a third seamer's slot as the two right-arm quicks had a long work-out in the 'nets'. Bowling coach Morne Morkel had a lot of time for the two tall pacers whom the bouncy conditions here would suit well.            

"Yeah, they're two fast bowlers, it's great to have them around in the squad," he noted. "I think they add a lot of variation to their attack, especially Harshit, he bowls at a good pace, he finds a way to also extract some bounce out of the surface. Yeah, for me, for them it's their first tour, Prasidh had a bit of experience now with India, a tour where he had a bit of game time, but for Harshit it's a bit of an unknown."