Cues from Lord's nets: Why Gill and Pant skipped training; Bumrah's final touches

TimesofIndia.com in London: India's nets after travel day didn't have 100% attendance as captain Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal didn't attend the optional session at the Lord's Cricket Ground today (July 8).

The team left from Birmingham via bus yesterday and most of the players took it easy after the travel day.Of the players expected to play the third Test from July 10, only Karun Nair, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja trained under the watchful eyes of head coach Gautam Gambhir and the remaining coaching staff. Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh continued with their preparations, and Prasidh Krishna, expected to make way for Bumrah, worked on his batting before undergoing a drill with bowling coach Morne Morkel.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!It was a light session as the players took it easy and was more about getting a feel of the venue and the setting before the next fixture. All eyes were again on Bumrah who went through his pre-bowling routine - a light job, some stretching, spot deliveries - before hitting full tilt. Like Birmingham, where he didn't play but trained, he spent a lot of time bowling to his teammates in the nets and then padded up for an extended hit.

In between, there was a lot of banter with the ground staff where he compared pitches in previous two Tests to Kanpur and Nagpur, and remained very chatty with Arshdeep Singh. The rhythm looked good when he bowled long spells to the likes of Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan, and worked on his batting too.For the rest, it was business as usual. Nitish bowled for a long duration, Kuldeep kept giving it a rip and Jadeja worked on his batting for an extended period before his usual long conversations with coach Gambhir.

The team come into the third Test in good space - having won in Edgbaston and coming close at Headingley.

The batters have been on song, bowlers gave a good account of their skills in Birmingham, where they registered India's first win in the format, and with Bumrah returning for Lord's, they will have another spring in their stride. Akash and Siraj were excellent with the new ball and presence of Bumrah will only add more control and bite to the attack.The turnaround time between the two Tests was less but India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak hinted that Siraj, who has played both games, should be good to go. Both Siraj and Bumrah have played a Test before at the Home of Cricket during the 2021 series and will have enough tips to pass on to the first-timers.