India skipper Virat Kohli was among the few senior players to skip the optional practice session at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi, a day ahead of the first T20I between India and New Zealand.
Along with Virat, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also took rest on the eve of the match day.
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Ashish Nehra, Mohamad Siraj, Dinesh Karthik, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and few others were the players who flew down to Feroz Shah Kotla with the coaching staff headed by Ravi Shastri to prepare for the game. While KL Rahul is coming back to the Indian team after being dropped for the ODI series, Iyer and Siraj have received their maiden call-up in the shortest format of the game.
Indian players also witnessed the felicitation ceremony of Virender Sehwag, where he inaugurated a gate named after him. Delhi players like Madan Lal, Vijay Dahiya, Amit Bhandari, Hari Gidwani, Robin Singh (jr.), Nikhil Chopra, Atul Wassan, Amita Sharma (women’s cricket) and many others marked their presence during the event. Sehwag also received greetings from his childhood friend Ashish Nehra, Head Coach Shastri and players who were present at the Feroz Shah Kota stadium for the practice session.
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However, the state association bungled up with stats of Virender Sehwag as one of the records mentioned on the record plate showed Sehwag as the only Indian cricketer to score a triple century in Test cricket, which is not true.
Karun Nair became the second Indian to score a triple century in a Test match when he achieved the milestone against England last year during the Chennai Test. Sehwag did not react to it that time, but soon, we might see the state association taking corrective measures.
Meanwhile, the first T20I between India and New Zealand will be played on November 1. The game will also mark the end of Ashish Nehra’s career, who will retire from all forms of the game. There are bright chances of Nehra getting a game here because Kotla is his home ground and skipper Kohli would also understand the importance of bidding adieu to the game at home ground.
For this, however, he has to bench either of Jasprit Bumrah or Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It will be interesting to see who makes for Nehra in the playing XI.
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