All of a sudden, on a drizzly day at Canberra, where he had run innumerable laps around the arena at Manuka Oval, Rishabh Pant, who was lying sprawled on the ground looking at the skies, got up, ran a few yards, and did a gymnastic leap and twirl, and landed perfectly on his feet. For some reason, the big screen at the ground had the actor Ian McKellen in his role as Gandalf in Lord of Rings in a jittery, loopy almost gif-like video at that point. Not many might have expected it, but the Indian team have proven to be the real lords of the ring on this tour so far.
“There is a genuine appreciation among Australian fans of the skill and the persona that Indians have shown in the first Test,” says Greg Rowell, a former first-class cricketer, a professional lawyer with his own firm, and a member of Cricket Australia. “They seem to be a happy unit.”
That they are, especially after turning around from being all out for 150 on the first day of the Perth Test. They arrived at Canberra, which has to be the quietest capital in the world, especially of a country as big as Australia, in high spirits. Rohit Sharma, their captain was back with them in the nets session, so was Shubman Gill, batting and looking comfortable after that finger injury that put him out of the first Test.
Rohit had already batted in the nets during the Perth Test when India was on the ascendancy with Kohli charging to his hundred on that third day, but Gill’s recovery would please them ahead of the second Test. “He looked comfortable. The physicians will continue to evaluate him,” said Abhishek Nayar, India’s assistant coach.
Gill first faced throwdowns where the pace was incredibly increasingly raised by the team’s other assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate. After 30 minutes of looking comfortable against throwdowns, he moved to the bowling nets to face Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, and Yash Dayal for a short while.
The forecast for the pink ball practice game isn’t good – it’s expected to rain through the weekend. Even on Friday, there was a light but steady drizzle, but the Indians trained through it. “It shows how everyone is very keen to train,” Nayar would deadpan.
At Manuka Oval, their captain Rohit Sharma, who had addressed the Australian parliament on Thursday, was the first to hit the nets and was soon joined by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli. The ball was skidding around on the slightly-wet patches as rain drops kept falling, but both Kohli and Rohit didn’t seem to mind. Akash Deep was in particular, quite nippy and kept jagging the ball around in helpful conditions. Soon, Jaiswal joined the two senior batsmen, and batted for a long time. Later, Jaiswal would also face throwdowns at the main arena, and even bowl seam-up, and remark in jest, “fast bowling bahut difficult job hai rey!” to no one in particular.
When Kohli, Rohit, Jaiswal were at the main nets, with Gill taking throw downs at the opposite side, some of the team were in the main ground, warming up, running, and playing touch football, standing in a circle and just kicking it gently in the air without trying to not let it fall on the ground. And whenever someone missed, he was greeted with howls of laughter and for a little while it was Sarfaraz Khan who was the guilty party. He would vehemently protest everytime saying the ball was at an unretrievable angle or too far from him.
R Ashwin bowled at the main nets. And even wanted to bat right at the end, after everyone had finished batting.
The pacers who played in the first Test, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, as well as spinner Washington Sundar didn’t bowl at the nets. When Rana walked across from the main ground (the batting nets were just outside the playing arena), he was stopped by Bumrah. “Geela hai rey (it’s wet) and Rana replied, ‘ “yes yes just wanted to see what’s happening there.”
What was happening there was the first signs of the possible return to the second Test for Gill, if not for the warm-up game at the Manuka Oval. And a very happy Indian camp at that.
Around 4 pm local time, the Indians filed out of the ground. Some led by Rohit Sharma and Pant, along with a few youngsters, walked to their team hotel. Not just a light drizzle, but there was laughter in the air.
Shubman Gill is likely to return for the second Test. (BCCI | X) 
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