Soon after gently rolling his arm over in the field of play, Akash Deep cut a forlorn figure as uncapped Anshul Kamboj and Prasidh Krishna bowled full tilt at India’s first outdoor training session ahead of the fourth Test.

Akash Deep, who has been nursing a groin injury since the Lord’s Test, did not get the green light from the team physio to have a go at the nets soon after undergoing a bowling fitness evaluation in the middle under the watchful eyes of coach Morne Morkel. Minutes later, he was a spectator to the net session standing alongside Arshdeep Singh who has been ruled out of the game due to a hand injury.

If Akash Deep too is deemed unfit, the team management will need to choose between Prasidh Krishna or Anshul Kamboj for the third pacer’s slot alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.

Kamboj, who joined the team over the weekend as a cover for the injured Arshdeep, was on Monday added to the main squad, raising the possibility of a surprise debut. The pacer from Haryana bowled for close to an hour in the nets with high intensity alongside Siraj, Bumrah, Prasidh and Shardul Thakur.

Kamboj was also seen padded up for a brief batting session alongside Thakur, who could be a direct replacement for injured all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Siraj had the highest intensity bowling against the likes of Shubman Gill, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, while Bumrah moved to the field of play for more bowling after finding the practice surface slippery.

Rishabh Pant bats and keeps pain free

All eyes were also glued to Rishabh Pant, who had not kept wickets at the Lord’s after getting on his fingers while keeping wickets on the opening day of the second Test. While batting on day five, Pant was grimacing every time he defended against a seriously quick Jofra Archer.

Considering he performed keeping drills and batted pain free for an hour, Pant looks fit enough to start the fourth Test. Pant is always up for some banter even with his own teammates and that was evident when he shared the nets with skipper Shubman Gill.

There was no apparent discomfort while batting against Mohammed Siraj, Kamboj and Krishna.

There is also speculation over Karun Nair’s slot in the playing eleven but he batted with plenty of purpose. So was the case with Sai Sudharsan, who could replace Nair in the playing eleven. The southpaw was also seen taking catching practice in the slip cordon.

With Nitish Reddy on his way back to India, Yashasvi Jaiswal was back doing catching drills in the slip cordon.

– Ends

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