Indian cricketers turn to indoor nets as rain lashes Trinidad ahead of ODI

The Shikhar Dhawan-led Indian cricket team for the ODIs against West Indies had to turn to indoor nets ahead of the opening ODI of the three-match series starting on Friday, as rain lashed Trinidad on the eve of the match.

The BCCI on Thursday tweeted a video report on the indoor nets as the final practice session had to be cancelled because of rain.

"Gearing up for ODI No.1 against the West Indies. Here's @ShubmanGill giving a lowdown on #TeamIndia's first net session in Trinidad," said BCCI as it posted a video of the indoor training session.

Shikhar Dhawan will lead Team India in the three-match ODI series in West Indies as regular skipper Rohit Sharma, senior batter Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, who led India in the T20I series in Ireland, Jasprit Bumrah, who led India in the rescheduled fifth Test of the 2021 series at Lord's, and Mohammed Shami have all been rested.

With so many big names absent from the squad, the Indian selectors will test the likes of batsmen Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav, who along with all-rounder Deepak Hooda are expected to come to the fore.

The Indian team had flown to Trinidad from the United Kingdom which is experiencing its hottest summer and landed on a rainy Caribbean island. So, the team management decided to use the indoor facilities to tune up for the upcoming games.

"As we have just come from the UK, we thought that it would be nice to have an (outdoor) practice session. But it started raining. So, it's always better to have a knock in the indoor facilities rather than having no session," said opener Shubman Gill in the video tweeted by BCCI.

"It was a good session as we got to do some specific things like playing underarm balls," said Gill.

Gill said the players are looking forward to the chance of playing a good white-ball side like West Indies.

"I am feeling great and we all are really excited and really buzzed about these three ODIs. We feel that it would be a good series," Gill said.

All three ODIs of the series will be played at the Queen's Park Oval here between July 22 and 27 in Trinidad. The ODI series will be followed by a five-match T20I series, between July 29-August 7 with the last two matches scheduled in the USA.

Regular skipper Rohit Sharma, Pant and Pandya will return to the squad for the T20Is, while Kohli, Bumrah and Shami have been rested for those matches as well.

--IANS

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