Coach Dravid hits Team India nets ahead of NZ T20Is

RAHUL Dravid, who has been appointed as the new head coach of the Indian national cricket team, on Monday (15) hit the nets along with new T20 international captain Rohit Sharma as the players took part in a practice session at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in the north-western state of Rajasthan.

India will take on New Zealand, who finished as the runners-up in the just concluded T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, in the first of the three T20Is at the venue on Wednesday (17).

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Along with Dravid at the practice session were Paras Mhambrey, who replaced Bharat Arun as the new bowling coach, and Vikram Rathour, the batting coach. Dravid replaced Ravi Shastri as the head coach while Sharma became the T20I captain after regular captain Virat Kohli stepped down from the leadership in the shortest format. Kohli has been rested for the T20I series and will also not play the first of the two Tests that follow the limited-over series.

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Among the Indian players, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Chahar, Mohammad Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishan Kishan and Axar Patel were among those attending the training session.

Earlier in the day, India’s T20I vice captain KL Rahul said India’s long-term focus will be the next world cup but every series from this point will be equally important.

“The long-term goal is to focus on the World Cup but we will focus on the process and every series from now on is important. We will try to see what combinations are perfect for us and can be used for the world cup but right now we will be focusing on one series at a time,” the ace batsman said in a virtual press conference on Monday.

India will play the T20I games against New Zealand in Ranchi on November 19 and in Kolkata on November 21 besides Jaipur. The two Tests will be played in Kanpur (November 25-29) and Mumbai (December 3-7).

India had a disappointing outing in the T20 World Cup where they lost to arch-rivals Pakistan and failed to make it beyond the group stage.