Rohit, Kohli sweat it out at nets; New Zealand’s Young bats for ODIs

Vadodara: Senior batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma looked in good touch as India went through a rigorous training session here on Friday, ahead of their three-match ODI series against New Zealand.

The ODI series starting here on Sunday will be followed by a long T20 season, which includes a five-match series against the Kiwis, the T20 World Cup and then the Indian Premier League.

Both Kohli and Rohit spent nearly one-and-a-half hours against Indian pacers, spinners and throw down specialists after playing two matches each in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Having struck 77 and 131 in the two matches of the premier domestic competition, Kohli went hard against the Indian spinners and pacers alike. Some variable bounce against the throw down specialists in one of the nets did challenge the batting superstar further.

However, India’s middle-order mainstay Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, as well as pacer Mohammed Siraj weren’t a part of the three-hour training session, having played for their respective state teams in the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Thursday.

The trio will be linking up with the team late in the evening on Friday.

India captain Shubman Gill also went through his training drills and batting in the nets with comfort, having missed the last two T20Is against South Africa late in December due to a toe injury.

ODI has much to offer?

The relevance and context of ODI cricket has been questioned time and again but New Zealand batter Will Young on Friday pointed out that the format still has two “world events with so much wonderful history”.

On a breezy Friday noon, a new-look New Zealand side spent nearly three hours sweating it out ahead of the three-match ODI series to kickstart a long tour of the Indian subcontinent

“Especially with the T20 World Cup round the corner, it is easy to have the series lost in the greater context,” Young said here at the Baroda Cricket Association Stadium.