The four friends are waiting in front of England’s dressing room, braving the afternoon sun, excitement writ large on their faces.
They are all from Devon, in the south west of England, and are here for the second Test. They are delighted when Brendon McCullum smiles and waves to them.
“How is Jack Leach?” one of them shouts.
“You will see him,” the man who is revolutionising Test cricket assures them.
The four men are overjoyed when Ben Stokes emerges and waves too. “These England cricketers are always nice to their fans, you know,” says one.
England had just finished their training at the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium. Even as the white luxury team bus of England leaves, a similar one carrying the Indian squad arrives.
There is a bigger buzz, of course. And there are a lot of fans, too, as the players make their way towards the main ground.
After warming up and some catching practice at the main ground, they head to the nets. Among the first to bat at the nets is Kuldeep Yadav. The left-arm leg-spinner could well be the front-runner to replace the injured Ravindra Jadeja who has played such a crucial role both with bat and his left-arm spin in the Indian Test team’s remarkable success of late.
After his stint with the bat, Kuldeep would also bowl for quite some time. Even as captain Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shubman Gill, who is under a bit more pressure than most of his batting colleagues, are training at the nets, one could see Rajat Patidar waiting patiently for his turn.
The top-order batter from Madhya Pradesh is, of course, one of the men in focus ahead of this Test match. He is a serious contender following the injury of K.L. Rahul.
Patidar had been added as a replacement for Virat Kohli, who pulled out from the team for the first two Tests because of personal reasons.
He had joined the squad ahead of the Hyderabad Test but had little chances of making his debut.
Patidar does get to bat at the nets for a fairly long session. The other batter everyone seems to have been waiting for, Sarfaraz Khan, also gets to spend time at the nets. Washington Sundar and Saurabh Kumar, the two spinning all-rounders, too are in the spotlight.
These young men must be wondering what Friday has in store for them.
Like England’s off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who bowled at the nets, having pushed his visa nightmare behind him.
