Cricket World Cup: Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill roll their arms over to cover for Hardik Pandya’s absence as India hit the nets ahead of England match | Cricket-world-cup News

With Hardik Pandya set to miss the Lucknow tie against England and India continuing with the five-special-bowlers formula, the team management is banking on part-timers to bail the team out if one or more of the main men have an off day.
Follow all the action from the Cricket World Cup 2023 on our special World Cup section. You can also find the latest stats, like the top scorer and the highest wicket-taker of the current edition, upcoming World Cup fixtures and the points table on the site.
The key highlight of India’s first net session in Lucknow on Thursday was Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav rolling their arms over to cover for any contingencies during the game against the beleaguered holders. Kohli, who completed Hardik’s over in Pune against Bangladesh after the all-rounder went off due to an ankle injury, was the first to bowl, sending down around a dozen balls to captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill.
Surya was the one to bowl the most in the nets among the three designated to perform the sixth bowler’s role. He bowled to Rohit and Shreyas Iyer, and even deceived the latter, receiving a big hug from Ravichandran Ashwin.

Hello Lucknow 👋#TeamIndia are here for their upcoming #CWC23 clash against England 👌👌#MenInBlue | #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/FNF9QNVUmy
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 25, 2023
After bowling in tandem with the veteran off-spinner for a good 15 minutes, Surya joined Ravindra Jadeja at the adjoining nets, where the skipper was batting, bowling for a further 15 minutes there.
Back in 2014, Surya’s action was reported for a suspect bowling action during the Champions League T20 tournament while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders against Chennai Super Kings in the final.
The most curious battle of the net session was between Mohammed Siraj the batsman and Gill the bowler.
The opening batsman bowled for at least half an hour to the opening bowler, and every time after beating the outside edge, he would shadow-practice the forward defence in an apparent coaching tip to Siraj.Most Read
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With frontline batsmen rolling their arms over, the special bowlers fine-tuned their batting skills. Jasprit Bumrah was the first to hit the nets and batted for a good 45 minutes, taking throwdowns from batting coach Vikram Rathour.
Mohammed Shami and Ishan Kishan were the only two members of the squad who skipped the optional training session.

One of the key concerns about the Indian team ahead of the World Cup was the inability of their top-order batsmen to chip in with a few overs and the lack of reliability of their bowlers when it comes to contributing runs down the order. All-rounder Pandya’s unavailability for at least the next two games puts this facet under even more focus. He missed the game against New Zealand in Dharamsala last Sunday, and is at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru to be treated a special from England.