England cricketers during their first full training session in India at the Brabourne stadium on Thursday. Image Source: twitter@englandcricket[/caption]Internet Desk: Coming back from a disastrous Bangladesh tour, the England test squad led by Alistair Cook got down to its first net session at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The English side had its first full net session after arriving from Bangladesh two days ago. The notable aspect of England’s practice session was the presence of twelve local spin bowlers.
In an SOS to the local association i.e., Mumbai Cricket Association, the England team management asked to provide them with a variety of spinners that included off spinners, left-arm orthodox slow bowlers and leg spinners. All the spinners were made to bowl extensively to the English batsmen who are preparing to confront the Indian spin threat in the five-game series.
England’s premier batsman Joe Root was seen playing the slog-sweep and the step-out straight drives repeatedly against the net slow bowlers.
The England team faced widespread criticism from media back home and former English cricketers like Bob Willis, Michael Vaughan and Graeme Swann after their meek surrender against Bangladesh’s 19 year old spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraj which cost them the test match in Mirpur. England lost by 108 runs thereby handing Bangladesh its first ever Test match win against them.
The marathon training and net practice session lasted for close to four hours with all the 16 members of the squad taking part in it although the session was "an optional" one.
"It was an optional session but with the Test in Dhaka finishing early (England lost in three days), all the team members had enough time to recover," said team sources.
Initially only a few members, including captain Alastair Cook, were scheduled to take part in the session today to be followed by a full session tomorrow before the team's departure to Rajkot for the opening Test of the five-game encounter beginning November 9.
"The squad will depart on Sunday. We have another full session here tomorrow," England team sources informed.
England are set to have two full days' of practice in Rajkot before the lung-opener, the first-ever Test match in that city.
Meanwhile, the visiting team sources were not much worried over the happenings vis-a-vis BCCI and the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha panel.
"We have no concern and are preparing for Rajkot," said the visiting team's sources when asked about reports about BCCI having written to their England counterparts to foot their own hotel bills and other expenses on the tour.
"The team relaxed in the hotel after reaching here," said the sources who also brushed aside media speculations that the England and Wales Cricket Board had written to the BCCI over providing extra security for team members from a particular community.
"It has been blown out of proportion. There's no concern about security," the sources said.
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