Ahead of the Boxing Day Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series against Australia, Team India engaged in a fun fielding drill with $300 at stake. The five-match series is currently tied at 1-1 after India secured a draw in the third Test in Brisbane. The Boxing Day Test will kick off on December 26 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a clip of the fielding drill on the official social media handle. In the video, India fielding coach T Dilip explained the practice session and said, “Today’s target, you can see three stumps. The bigger stump will have one point, the smaller stump will have two points, the ball in the centre will have four points. We are using angles today. You can see three markers. From each marker, each one will go six balls.”
Target hitting with points system
3 groups led by young captains
Cash reward on the line
Fun, energy and intensity – #TeamIndia gears up for the Melbourne Test with a lively fielding drill with Fielding coach T Dilip #AUSvIND
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 23, 2024
The fielding coach added that the key objective of the session was to make sure the team got some energy before the net practice.
“The key objective for me today was getting all together and making sure that before we kick off into the nets we get some energy going and together as a group when we work its outstanding,” he added.
An amount of $300 was the prize money for the winner of the fielding drill. Players were divided into three groups during the practice and Dhruv Jurel’s was named the winner of the session and he won $300.
Jurel’s team included Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Prasidh Krishna and Washington Sundar. The other two groups were led by Sarfaraz Khan and Mohammed Siraj.
Sarfaraz’s team had Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Harshit Rana and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Siraj’s group had Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Akash Deep and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
“Target hitting with points system. 3 groups led by young captains. Cash reward on the line. Fun, energy and intensity – #TeamIndia gears up for the Melbourne Test with a lively fielding drill with Fielding coach T Dilip,” BCCI wrote on ‘X’, while sharing the clip.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (C), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (VC), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.
