Time for Sudharsan to repay faith put by team think-tank

A FEW minutes after India started their matchday minus two training session at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday, B Sai Sudharsan voluntarily started a game of football.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @ New Delhi

Soon enough, his statemate, N Jagadeesan, joined in. This group had swelled to four after Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj couldn't resist the opportunity to leather the ball on a few occasions.

All of them exhibited some good touches, Jagadeesan floated a few crosses in from a very dodgy looking part of the outfield, understandable as the city has taken in a fair amount of rain over the last few nights (more rain is forecast during the second Test but nothing match threatening). Once that impromptu football session finished, Adrian le Roux, the team's strength and conditioning guru, supervised a drill centred around fielding and throwing down a single stump from 10 metres away.