Virat Kohli & Co. had a lot of spare time at hand as Hyderabad T20I got delayed due to wet outfield. Team India made the full use of the opportunity and had a fun practice session at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. While the Umpires were busy having a discussion after inspecting the ground the Indian players decided to have a left-handed batting channel. Maybe they were trying to perfect the switch hit which Australian skipper David Warner plays with ease.
It was Indian opener, Rohit Sharma who started the proceedings. The ‘Hit-Man’ did not look anywhere near his explosive self while batting left-handed as he could not time the ball at all.
After him came the skipper who barely plays any unorthodox shots. During the India vs Sri Lanka series, a video of Kohli batting left-handed in gully cricket went viral. However, Kohli could not connect the ball at the start and ended up falling on the ground. Kohli could not control his shot or his follow through in the first few attempts. He came back to bat and managed to hit the ball in the middle of the bat. Though the camera did not show how far the ball travelled.
Hardik Pandya was no far behind as he tried his hand at the challenge as well. Pandya could hit the ball in the middle of the bat easily. He tried a few shots and could do better than Rohit and Kohli while batting left-handed.
Kedar Jadhav waited for his opportunity as well. At first, Rohit did not give him the bat but Jadhav had his chance after a while. The all-rounder impressed everyone as he came down the track and hit the ball reasonably well. We might witness a few switch hits from Jadhav in the upcoming T20Is.
Some left handed batting practice for the Captain and vice-captain as we wait for a further update on the start of play #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/pG82JVyZIP
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 13, 2017
And @msdhoni joins the party #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/slN7dJqIdr
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 13, 2017
The last one to try his hand at left-handed batting was MS Dhoni. Though there was a tiny detail that almost went unnoticed. Dhoni was wearing a white sock and black sock in his left leg and right leg respectively. The Indian wicketkeeper could not reciprocate his hitting batting left-handed. He just managed to hit the ball towards the leg side.
