NEW DELHI: Indian cricket team members, including Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, began their preparations for a two-Test series against Bangladesh on Friday. The first Test is scheduled to begin on September 19 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Coach Gautam Gambhir, who is overseeing his first home series, led the closed-door training session. He was joined by the new bowling coach Morne Morkel and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared images from the training session, captioned, "The countdown starts as Team India begin their preps for an exciting home season.
The images showed the squad, including captain Rohit Sharma and Kohli, listening to Gambhir and his team.
"Virat was there for 45 minutes and Bumrah also bowled full throttle," a local source told PTI
Kohli arrived in Chennai directly from London while Rohit was seen at the airport on Thursday night. Other key players like Bumrah, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant also reached the city on Thursday.
Sarfaraz Khan will join the team after his Duleep Trophy game.
The team is looking to recover from the disappointment of losing to Sri Lanka in August, which was Gambhir's first series as head coach.
India will face a confident Bangladesh team, fresh off a 2-0 Test series win over Pakistan.
The series holds significant World Test Championship points. After this, India will face New Zealand and Australia in upcoming series.
India currently lead the WTC table with 68.52 percentage points, followed by Australia with 62.50 percentage points. Bangladesh is fourth with 45.83 percentage points.
The second Test between India and Bangladesh will be played in Kanpur from September 27.
