Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], February 20 (ANI): Ahead of the pink-ball Test against England at the newly-built Motera Stadium, the Indian team is leaving no stone unturned in its practice.
Skipper Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and the rest of the squad members took part in the training session on Saturday for the third game of the series.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared the pictures of the training session in a tweet. “Snapshots from #TeamIndia’s training session at the Motera ahead of the pink-ball Test,” it said.
With India all set to play their first game at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, England and India players who have begun training here are also wowed by the size of the stadium with a sitting capacity of 1,10,000. It is the world’s largest cricket stadium
All-rounder Hardik Pandya said earlier in the day that he feels proud to have such a facility in the country and said he is eager to have fans in the stadium for the pink-ball match.
“To be honest, surreal to be at the world’s largest stadium, we cannot wait to have fans around and see the atmosphere, all the boys loved it, it took us around one hour to get used to the size of the stadium. I feel very proud that we have this stadium in India. I have not seen a gym connected to the dressing room, this is the first time I am seeing a dressing room having a connected gym. It feels fantastic, I cannot thank the GCA enough,” Pandya said in a video posted on the BCCI’s official website.
Batsman Cheteshwar Pujara added that the gym facility next to the dressing room is very useful for the players.
“It is an amazing feeling, it is a huge stadium and we all are looking forward to playing our first pink-ball Test at Motera. The gym is next to the dressing room so it is useful to the guys. The gym is excellent and we did our gym session, we had a good time,” Pujara said.
Opening batsman Mayank Agarwal also praised the stadium.
“It is a massive ground, we have never played in such a huge stadium. The gym is fantastic, we have never seen an association have a gym facility like that, it was a pleasure training here,” he said.
Both the Indian and England teams arrived in Ahmedabad on Thursday for the four-match series which currently stands level at 1-1.
The teams will lock horns beginning February 24. The fourth Test of the series will also be played at the Motera Stadium.
India achieved an emphatic 317-run win against England in the second Test of the series. As a result, Virat Kohli-led side has also reached the second spot in World Test Championship (WTC) standings. (ANI)