Team India’s Tuesday nets session drops major hints for Guwahati Test as batter gets ready to return

India are unperturbed about dishing out another spin-friendly track at Guwahati for the second and final Test against South Africa, which starts on Saturday, despite succumbing to a 30-run defeat in the first match on a similar surface. South Africa’s first Test win in India after 2010 came inside three days as Indian batters crumbled on a dry surface chasing 124.

India stayed back in Kolkata after the first Test at Eden Gardens and also held an optional training session on Tuesday before leaving for the Northeast on Wednesday.

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Bengal ambidextrous spinner Kaushik Maity was seen bowling in the nets to Indian batters as he tried to replicate the bowling of off-spinner Simon Harmer and left-arm tweaker Keshav Maharaj.

“It was my first time at the India nets although I have bowled in the IPL nets of various franchises during games at Eden Gardens. Today I bowled off-break to Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Devdutt Padikkal. To Dhruv Jurel, I bowled left-arm spin,” Maity said.

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Maity also revealed that he was given no specific instruction from India coach Gautam Gambhir or support staff.

“I concentrated on what I wanted to bowl and neither the Indian players nor coaches asked me to bowl in any specific area. It was a learning experience for me bowling to world-class players,” he added.

But what transpired in the nets gave a good idea of what could happen in Guwahati. Washington Sundar was seen bowling off-spin to Ravindra Jadeja and Dhruv Jurel. The wicketkeeper-batter Jurel was also seen practicing reverse sweeps against throwdowns by batting coach Sitanshu Kotak and net bowlers.

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Sai Sudharsan likely to return for India

Another batter who seemed extremely busy on Tuesday was Sai Sudharsan, who was dropped in the Eden Gardens Test. But with Shubman Gill most likely to miss out on the second match, Sudharsan could be back in the playing XI.

He was seen batting against pacers and spinners, especially facing off-spin and left-arm spin bowling. Sudharsan was also seen having a word with coach Gambhir.

There’s little to guess now after the Tuesday nets session. There are enough hints suggesting that Sudharsan will be back for India, who are set to play on a spinning track at Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium.