Indian cricket team's Director Ravi Shastri is happy to know that skipper Virat Kohli has a lot of confidence in him.
Captain Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma were the first to hit the nets as the frontline pacers like Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami gave the session a miss in order to recover for Wednesday's game.
Team Director Ravi Shastri expects a winning start from his Indian players in the Asia Cup, which kick-starts in Fatullah, in Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
'The discussion before this innings with Dhruv was 'go down to the level of your practice and everything will be fine'. The talk is always about staying hungry.'
'Let's be the strength of our nation and help it reach greater heights.'
"If you have played cricket then you have grown up watching these legends. It's a wonderful thing to have happened and they will help us in many ways," Kohli said.
Ganguly was also asked some light-hearted questions which ranged from his favourite film to his favourite actor.
'They are in the process of building a new team. But from what I watched in the first Test, some of the players are really good. You can't just rule Australia out of the series. Of course India are more superior but again they have to continue playing good cricket'
After several losses in the early years of the new century, a resurgent India notched up two consecutive series wins in Australia to become the Aussies' nemesis.
The Indian team management, headed by coach Ravi Shastri, intimated the Committee of Administrators that the team will take at least 18 months to prepare for the Day-Night Test.
Nursing a toe injury, India opener Rohit Sharma on Monday skipped the team's training session and is likely to miss Tuesday's Asia Cup T20 match against Sri Lanka in Mipur. His opening partner Shikhar Dhawan did train, so did skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had a knock during the two-and-a-half-hour net session at the BCB Academy in Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. Rohit, who took a blow on the left toe off a yorker by Mohammed Amir, did not accompany the team for practice as he stayed back in his hotel room. While he is lucky to have escaped fracture, it is highly unlikely that he will play against Sri Lanka, which might increase the soreness of his left toe. With the World T20 starting in a week's time, the team management will not risk Rohit, who is one of the key players in the top order. Dhawan hit the nets but did not have the usual sprightly strides that one normally associates with the Delhi left-hander. He took a few catches, did a bit of shadow batting and was the last one to come out to bat in fading light.
Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI's demand is for a tournament involving the 'Big Three' of India, Australia and England plus another country to be slotted into an already bursting schedule, putting it on course for a clash with the ICC, which has enjoyed a period of calm in recent years at its Dubai headquarters. India's 'Super Series' proposal is a concern to many in the game, including the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), Tony Irish.
Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has sustained a serious knee injury and is likely to miss most of the domestic season, having already come back to India with his IPL campaign in the UAE cut short.
As per norms, the CAC is mandated to conduct interviews for the job but the committee, comprising the legendary trio of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly, may not be part of the process owing to prior commitments.
India will be without captain and batting mainstay Virat Kohli, who decided to skip the first of the two Tests, while batter Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami will miss both matches.
'I think it's a great opportunity to do well in any condition. We did well on the last two tours of South Africa and England. We are not even thinking like we have a pressure situation. Instead, we always think that we have an opportunity to do well'
IPL had already been postponed to April 15, is on the verge of cancellation with the country in a 21-day national lockdown. MS Dhoni's childhood coach Keshav Ranjan Banerjee remains hopeful that the ageing cricketing hero will find a place in India's T20 World Cup.
The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) on Thursday shot a letter to COA chief Vinod Rai, expressing 'pain' at the perception that appointments of Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan were forced upon head coach Ravi Shastri.
Jasprit Bumrah started off from where he had left before being laid low by stress fracture as he bowled flat out at the India nets in Guwahati ahead of their first T20 International against Sri Lanka on Sunday. Closely monitored by team's support headed by Ravi Shastri, Bunrah hit the straps straightway, bowling with pace on a breezy winter evening on Friday even as the Sri Lankan team decided to take rest for the day.
India skipper Virat Kohli was effusive in praise of Ravchandran Ashwin after the off-spinner became only the fourth Indian, and sixth spinner in the world, to take 400 Test wickets.
A BCCI official in the know of developments said that the Indian cricket board stands with the boys as such behaviour is 'unacceptable'.
A look at how India have fared in their World Cup opening games.
The pitch hasn't witnessed competitive cricket since then and to make matters worse, some football matches were played in the multipurpose stadium.
Images from the T20 World Cup Super 12 match between South Africa and India, in Perth, on Sunday.
Kuldeep Yadav, among all the players in this team, has more experience of playing with pink ball and the kind of revolution he produces, he could make it difficult for batsmen to spot the black seam of the pink kookaburra under lights.
'I don't think 'oh, I have done 534 films' or 'I have 40 years of experience behind me.'
Who can forget the 1996 World Cup quarter-final in Bengaluru? Or Sachin Tendulkar's magical knock at Centurion in the 2003 World Cup? Or Kapil Dev-inspired India bowling out Pakistan 87 at Sharjah?
Having cut off the "umbilical cord" that tied him to the Board, the former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) spoke to PTI on a range of issues from "giving a free hand" to the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri duo, Anil Kumble's exit as national coach, his frosty relationship with colleague Diana Edulji, sexual harassment allegations against BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and difficulties in implementing the Supreme Court-mandated Lodha recommendations.
BCCI has reacted sharply to the Committee of Administrators red-flagging a proposed Day/Night Test match against the West Indies in October despite positive feedback from national chief coach Ravi Shastri.
The former captain's struggling innings of 51 off 96 balls and his failure to rotate the strike in the first ODI has brought to focus the rejigging that captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri will have to fret upon.
With 36 different playing XIs in as many Tests under Kohli's captaincy, the Indian line-up is begging for some consistency.
India opener Prithvi Shaw is likely to retain his place in the playing eleven for the second Test against New Zealand, starting Saturday, while Ravindra Jadeja may replace Ravichandran Ashwin.
'At least 7 to 8 players, who are all Test team specialists will have to be in England in June'
The IPL, by giving a large pool of Indian talent the opportunity to compete with the best international players, has also come to be seen as the cauldron that spews out the most exciting talent for not only the shortest format but also the longest and the one in between, says Suveen Sinha.
'All you need is that players are in the frame of mind so that they can be at their best. After you take the field, you are expected to take over and adapt to situations'
The high-powered International Cricket Council's Cricket Committee, chaired by former India captain Anil Kumble, on Friday expressed concerns about the "quality of Test pitches", especially the tendency of home teams to prepare tailor-made strips that suit them.
The former India captain was speaking at a felicitation function organised for CSK for winning the 2021 edition of IPL.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Chief Executive Officer Rahul Johri will be in Jamaica to meet Indian captain Virat Kohli and his team, in an attempt to get a feedback on the appointment of the new head coach.
Pandya and teammate K L Rahul were issued show cause notices by the BCCI for their remarks on women which triggered a social media storm. Regret and not apology was what Pandya offered in his reply.