IND vs NZ: KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill miss optional nets as India gear up for Kiwi challenge in semis | Cricket News

MUMBAI: A confident Team India arrived at the Wankhede on the eve of their World Cup semifinal against New Zealand on Wednesday to train under lights.
As it was an optional net session, vice-captain and wicket-keeper KL Rahul, No.4 bat Shreyas Iyer, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami and opener Shubman Gill chose to give the nets a miss. It has been a practice that the team has followed to give the players the choice whether to train or not, especially when the team has had travel and a game closely bunched.

Ishan Kishan, who has not featured in the playing XI since the victory over Afghanistan in New Delhi on October 11, took first strike and murdered the spin bowlers bowling at him.As coach Rahul Dravid, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and skipper Rohit Sharma chatted on and watched from a distance, Kishan kept belting the bowlers, may be trying to suggest to the think tank that a top-order having a bevy of right-handers with two left-arm-orthodox bowlers in the rival camp, could do with an aggressive left-hander to tackle them.

Virat Kohli, approaching a world record 50th ODI hundred, also had an extended net under lights, focusing on left-arm over the wicket throwdowns and left-arm spin, two bowling styles that have curbed his attacking game and have triggered his downfall, especially while forcing the pace.
Earlier on, Kohli had an intense duel while facing Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj, especially the latter. Throughout the session, Rahul and Rohit kept touching the turf to check how much dew was setting in. Dew, a common occurrence in November, could be an X-factor in the game and could force teams to change their gameplan.