A girl breezed into the Adelaide Oval here on Tuesday. She held a miniature bat and constantly uttered: “India jeetega (India will win).” Gradually more fans trooped in and it was all about feverish whispers, the sudden excitement on sighting Virat Kohli’s men, belting out Hindi songs and it did help that at nets, the players trained in close proximity to their fawning audience.
With the first Test looming ahead, the cricketers worked hard. Murali Vijay, K.L. Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Parthiv Patel batted upfront in the nets split into sections for spin, pace, local net-bowlers and throw-downs.
Later Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant had their stints. Every Kohli shot was greeted with enthusiastic cheers while mobile phones went on camera-mode.
All the bowlers were in attendance, including Ishant Sharma, who has been a regular on Australian tours since 2008 and is always remembered for an incredible spell to Ricky Ponting at Perth during that series. It is time for Ishant and company to dish out similar spells in the coming weeks.
