Greg grooms his young guns

For nearly 15 they laughed, talked, discussed, shared concerns. Sreesanth, who is sitting out the England tour match, took the opportunity to update Chappell on his session with team bio-mechanist Ian Frazer in the afternoon, when they worked on his run-up. ‘‘We had a good chat’’, Sreesanth later said. ‘‘He is such a good person to be with and he encouraged me a lot, which is what we youngsters really like about him.’’

Suresh Raina, who’d been knocking around in the nets when Chappell called him over, is a particular favourite of the coach. The Australian has been very impressed with Raina’s technique and has marked him out as a potential great. He had a few tips regarding the concentration level and focus.

Big, burly VRV Singh was the most silent among the group, preferring to listen to the boss. He knows he’s fortunate to be in the squad; he’s just recovered from injury, and his performance today was forgettable — he was hit for four boundaries and a six in one over by Kevin Pietersen.

But he, too, has been earmarked by Chappell and the think-tank for his pace and the coach was quick to share a few words on the bowling length and the areas he needs to work on.

It wasn’t all about the youngsters, though. Just before heading back to the team bus Chappell walked over to Gautam Gambhir, looking in good touch today but dropped for the first Test. He was clearly disappointed when first given the news but, by the end of his conversation with Chappell, looked a relaxed man.