NEW DELHI: Wicketkeeper
KS Bharat
said on Thursday that there is no fear in the injured Indian camp, saying that the team has created new strategies to counter England's attacking strategy, which includes using the sweep shot when needed in the second Test in
Visakhapatnam
.
In front of his home audience, Bharat stated the squad had worked on its faults from the series opener, where England pulled off an incredible comeback to win by 28 runs.
The English batsmen, specially
Ollie Pope
, disrupted the Indian spinners' strategies with a flurry of sweeps and reverse sweeps. They intend to keep up that kind of effort when the Test starts in Visakhapatnam on Friday.
"They really played very well. Credit to them. Ollie Pope really played good shots," Bharat said in the pre-match press conference.
Due to injuries, India would be missing their top batter,
KL Rahul
, and star all-rounder,
Ravindra Jadeja
.
"In our team meetings we spoke about the things we could have done better and yes, we certainly have few plans. (We are) definitely looking at the way how they went about the first game, playing some reverse. That's something we have definitely worked on," he added.
Indian batters, don't play a lot of sweep shots but were seen practising that shot in the two training sessions before the second Test. Does this mean that the home team will play more square of the wicket?
"Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks. It's not that we don't know how to sweep, reverse sweep or pedal, but on that particular day depending on the situation of the team, we as batters take our calls," Bharat said.
"And it is very clear to us to bat with freedom. We also practised in the reverse before the first game. But playing out in the centre, it's the batters' individual plan.
"If the team demands us to play in a certain way, then we are up to it," said the 30-year-old who batted well in the second innings in Hyderabad before getting a beauty from
Tom Hartley
.
Indian batters surrendering to the inexperienced Hartley was surprising but Bharat defended their effort.
"We don't play the bowlers, we play the ball. On any given day, it can be experienced or inexperienced (bowler), there is nothing like inexperienced in cricket. On that particular day, if someone bowls well, you have to give credit to them.
"After the game, the atmosphere is absolutely relaxed. They told us not to panic, which we are not. But then the instruction is very clear, it's a long Test series and we have played a lot of series like this in the past," he said.
Six players train in optional session
Although every member of the team was present on Wednesday, just six players showed up for this morning's optional practice session.
Shubman Gill,
Sourabh Kumar
,
Rajat Patidar
, Dhruv Jurel,
Yashasvi Jaiswal
, and
Sarfaraz Khan
were among them.
During the nets, Rajat and Sarfaraz, who are vying for a spot in the eleven, engaged in a lengthy but constructive conversation.
Gill put in a lot of hard work and faced a lot of left-arm spin, but he hasn't been able to replicate his white-ball form in Test cricket.
(With PTI inputs)
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