The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team has begun its preparations for the upcoming two-match Test series against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.

India will begin their home season when it takes on Bangladesh in the Test series opener here on September 19.

This will be India’s first Test series under head coach Gautam Gambhir and his new support staff, who have also got former South Africa fast-bowler Morne Morkel joining in as the new bowling coach.

“The countdown starts as Team India begin their preps for an exciting home season,” wrote the BCCI on its ‘X’ account while sharing the team huddle pictures.

Captain Rohit Sharma, talismanic batter Virat Kohli and other members of the Indian team like fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav and KL Rahul landed in Chennai on Thursday night.

Sharma addressed them in a huddle and was one of the first to get out there and take a hit. He was joined by Kohli as the two of them faced a series of net bowlers on specially prepared pitches at either end of the square in the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Rohit and Kohli worked alongside their top-order team-mates Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, who will be coming into the new season with plenty of confidence after coming-of-age performances against England earlier this year. All four of them alternated between the two nets and were fed a diet rich in left-arm spin. Tamil Nadu’s Ajith Ram and M Siddharth kept wheeling away in an attempt to mirror threat that Shakib Al Hasan will pose in the coming weeks. Varun Chakravarthy was there too, and so was Himanshu Singh, a 21-year-old offspinner from Mumbai who seems to have borrowed R Ashwin’s bowling action.

The rookie fast bowlers had to clear a sterner workload. Yash Dayal, who is being groomed with an eye towards the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later in the year, had a productive session under the eyes of both Morkel and Gambhir. Aside from his ability to provide a left-arm angle, his effort ball has a habit of hitting fairly high on the bat.

Pant provided one of the more thrilling moments of Friday’s session when he took Dayal on, after being beaten, with a remarkably casual pick-up shot off his hips. When he was in a life-threatening car crash in December 2022, the wicketkeeper was one of India’s leading batters in Test cricket. Although he has already made his return to the limited-overs format, and was part of the side that won the T20 World Cup, it will be a big moment, next Thursday, when he is back out there playing red-ball cricket.

The Bangladesh team, captained by Najmul Hossain Shanto, is set to travel to Chennai on September 15, four days ahead of the first Test’s commencement.

After the first Test in Chennai concludes on September 23, the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur will host the second Test from September 27 to October 1.

Both Test matches are a part of the ongoing 2023-2025 World Test Championship cycle, where India are on top of the table with 68.52 percentage points, while Bangladesh are at fourth place, with 45.83 percentage points.

India’s last Test assignment saw them beat England 4-1 at home in March, while Bangladesh come on the back of completing a historic 2-0 series triumph over Pakistan in Rawalpindi.

The series against Bangladesh also marks the start of a gruelling 10-match Test season for India, which includes a three-match Test series against New Zealand in October-November, before flying to Australia for the all-important five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh paceman Shoriful Islam will miss the two-Test series in India this month with a groin injury he suffered in Pakistan, the country’s cricket board said on Thursday.

Bangladesh are on a high after winning both Tests in Pakistan, where they registered their first test series victory against their Asian rivals.

Shoriful, 23, claimed three wickets in the first Test in Rawalpindi but missed the second match with the injury.

“Left-arm paceman Shoriful Islam is still recovering from a groin injury and was unavailable for the series,” the Bangladesh Cricket Board said after naming a 16-member squad for the India tour.

Agencies