The variety of music played in the dressing room – ranging from Hanuman Chalisa, English pop to popular Punjabi numbers – put the players at ease.
The usually mobbed Indian cricket team likes training in a relaxed atmosphere and that was evident in their body language as the players went about their business in their only practice session at the Kent County Cricket Ground before the fourth Test in Manchester.
Three days after the heartbreak of Lord's, the Indian players looked jaded as they deboarded from the team bus after an hour's ride from London but the quaint setting of the facility in Beckenham lifted their spirits instantly.
The variety of music played in the dressing room – ranging from Hanuman Chalisa, English pop to popular Punjabi numbers – also put the players at ease.
From the dressing room upstairs, the likes of Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah were involved in a friendly banter with the travelling mediapersons who tracked the training session from the ground level.
When a scribe tried to converse with Pant from a distance, the latter responded saying 'kuch sunai nahi de raha hain' with the music being played in the background. That was when Bumrah got involved and cracked a joke at his teammate's expense.
"Aaj Duggal Ji behere hain," said India's pace spearhead much to the laughter of the press pack. It was a reference to a line from a popular Hindi movie.
Both Pant and Bumrah were only part of the warm-up routine and also spent some time in the gym. It is worth mentioning that Pant is nursing a finger injury but is expected to regain full fitness for the Manchester game.
Bumrah, on the other hand, did not have a bowl and neither did Mohammed Siraj as part of workload management. It remains to be seen if either of them is rested in the next Test with the series on the line.
Barring K L Rahul, all squad members made the trip to Beckenham.
Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who is yet to play in the series, was bowling alongside Prasidh Krishna when he injured his bowling hand in an attempt to a stop a ball that came in his way from Sai Sudharsan's bat.
When batting coach Sitanshu Kotak sought him in the nets for a hit, captain Shubman Gill was heard saying that Arshdeep might not be able to bat due to the hand injury.
Following the incident, the pacer was seen walking around with bandage on his left-hand.
The incident prompted bowling coach Morne Morkel to roll his arm over in the nets. Though far from generating the express pace of Jofra Archer, Morkel provided good practice to the batters.
"It's not a sort of direct practice machine for Jofra (laughs), but obviously Arsh going away there after he cut his hand and Akash not bowling today.
"Sometimes we run a bit thin and if we think the practice is good, someone rolling off 20 yards and a bit taller and shaping the new ball, it is good practice for the batters. They obviously like competing against Morne as well. But it's mainly about getting the batters the best practice for the Test match," said assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate.
Keeping up with the light hearted mood of the session, Morkel went back to the dressing room claiming a five-wicket haul against his batters.
© 2025