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Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who is returning from a lengthy injury spell, will be a part of India's squad for the Border-Gavaskar trophy against Australia, starting on February 9 in Nagpur. Team India had two separate sessions at the Old Civil Lines grounds on Friday ahead of the four-Test series, and Jadeja, who has been out of action for close to five months after a knee surgery, recently returned to competitive cricket with a seven-wicket haul against Tamil Nadu in a Ranji Trophy match.
The first closed-door session saw Jadeja bowling as well as batting, and for a reasonable time as he would like to improve his match fitness for what could be a very physically demanding Test series.
The BCCI shared photos of these sessions with veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma also involved in intense training. Others pictured in the training sessions include KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman
Gill as the coaching staff helps the players coming into the team straight from playing white-ball cricket.
There was also a two and half hour morning session where one batch came for training while the second group came in the afternoon.
Jadeja will headline a spin-heavy attack for India, and the side have brought in four net bowlers to prepare — namely Rahul Chahar (Rajasthan), Washington Sundar, Ravisrinivas Sai Kishore (both TN) and Saurabh Kumar (UP). It is understood that India are preparing to face a lot of spin bowling from Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Swepson and left-arm spinner Ashton Agar.
India are the current holder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after winning the series in Australia in 2020-21.
India squad (for the first two Tests):
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat and Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia squad
Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson and David Warner.
