Mohali Diary

PALS-IN-ARMS: Sadagoppan Ramesh and Debang Gandhi are pals in arms. They opened the India `A’ innings against West Indies `A’ last winter but it was Ramesh who made the senior team first.

The two walked out together yesterday, but Ramesh fell for an ignominious duck and soon, Gandhi followed suit!

Today was different. The duo oozed confidence, matching the other stroke for stroke, fifty for fifty. Let’s see if they get to another milestone tomorrow.LUCKY REETINDER: Winds of change. That’s the Indiandressing room. Many new ideas are coming in. One of them is “getting youngsters to move around with the team”. The team management had asked for promising players like Punjab all-rounder Reetinder Singh Sodhi and MP paceman HS Sodhi to help the team at nets.

Reetinder, who led the India Schools team to a win in the Schools World Cup three years back, feels this is a chance of a lifetime. He stays at the team hotel, sharing the lunch-table with Tendulkar, Dravid and Srinath.

“It’s like a dream come true. I can gain so much,” Sodhi says.

BUBBLY PHYSIO: Having arrived here on Saturday, the new physio of the Indian team, South African Andrew Leipus, has got down to business with earnest. Little is known about the man but he looked quite enthusiastic. Though Indian shoulders were drooping yesterday, his spirits were high. Maybe, that was the reason he put the players through another session after a disastrous Sunday.