T. Dilip, India's fielding coach, talked about an idea of a competitive fielding drill he brought for the side's practice session on Monday ahead of the Test series opener against Bangladesh in Chennai, saying the thought behind this exercise was to get the whole team involved in it. “Today's whole session's idea was to get everyone together as a team drill, where we have two segments to it, the first segment was the competition drill, taking into consideration the humidity at Chennai. We made sure that the volume is less, but the intensity is taken care of. So we split it into two groups and had some little competition among catching, and the less number of errors is the team which won, and today it was Virat's team which has won today,” said Dilip in a video posted on BCCI's X account.
India will begin its home season when it takes on Bangladesh in the Test series opener at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium from September 19-23. The second Test will be played at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur from September 27 to October 1.
Dilip also threw light on how the team practised for outfield and close-in catching in humid Chennai weather.
“Later on, we split two batches, the bowlers and all-rounders split into two stations - where outfield and infield catching were taken care of, along with attacking ground fielding. The second group, which is the batter's group, had slip cordon, standard slip cordon catching, and also short-leg, silly point with some reflexes were taken care of.”
“Overall, I would say it was a fantastic session, considering the conditions, especially in the hot sun, got used to it. But one great part of this team was, irrespective of the conditions and weather, throughout all three stations, the intensity was top-notch,” he added.
Both Test matches are a part of the ongoing 2023-2025 World Test Championship cycle, where India are on top of the table with 68.52 percentage points, while Bangladesh are in fourth place, with 45.83 percentage points.
The series against Bangladesh also marks the start of a grueling 10-match Test season for India, which includes hosting New Zealand for a three-match Test series in October-November.
After this, India will fly to Australia for the all-important five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, in a bid to secure a place in the 2025 World Test Championship final, to be held at Lord's from June 11 to 15 next year.