Focus shifts to Test & Bengaluru skies

All eyes on the weather as India take on Black Caps in the 1st of the three-match series that begins Wednesday

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

WHILE elite sports teams will largely focus on the job at hand, they will also have one eye on the immediate future. Now, Bengaluru will be front and centre but they are already making moves to more or less treat the next eight Tests as a kind of package deal. That's a lot of Tests to play in two different continents in the next 80 or so days.

At the press conference on Monday, head coach Gautam Gambhir had said: "this (first Test at Bengaluru) is probably the start of looking at eight Tests in a row." That's why the travelling posse includes Mayank Yadav, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana and even Pradeep Krishna, a tall bowler who can hit the deck, an invaluable skill, especially in Australian conditions.

All three of Yadav, Reddy and Rana were present in the training session on Monday -- Tuesday's session was cancelled after incessant overnight rains -- but this isn't going to be a one-off.

"The reason we wanted to keep them close to us was because we are thinking of taking them to Australia," Sharma said during the pre-match press conference.

"We just want to monitor them.