Words of Wisdom for Yashasvi

During a net session ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Kohli, Rahul and coach Gambhir give pep talks to Mumbai batter, who has struggled to spend time in the middle

- Gomesh Sharma

L Rahul was in the middle of the second nets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with Yashasvi Jaiswal on Sunday morning. He was taking turns with the opening partner and on one such occasion, he stopped the youngster and had a long chat with Jaiswal.

The Mumbai batter, on his first trip Down Under, has blown hot and cold so far. He, although scored a century in the second innings of Perth, since then has struggled to spend time in the middle. Here, at the MCG, on what Akash Deep described as "low and slow surfaces," Jaiswal was facing India's first-choice pace attack - Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Nitish Reddy and Mohammed Siraj. And clearly, Jaiswal was all over the place.

The 22-year-old switched between batting inside and outside the crease while not getting in line with the delivery to play with a straight bat. Often times, he would go back and forth on whether to get on the front foot and ended up playing length deliveries awkwardly. Rahul, in the middle of nets before going for one of his many stints, would pull up the youngster and have a long chat with him. Watching from the outside, it seemed like he was talking about how the bat was coming down and where he was meeting the ball.