Bangalore: It was time for cricket as the sun was out and the Indian team strode out for some match-simulation exercises at the KSCA (B) Ground near the National Cricket Academy (NCA) here on Thursday. After their usual yoga session in the morning, the players trooped out for some hard cricket practice on the second day of the preparatory camp.

Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir shared the opening role while Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth ran in hard for their early spells. Tendulkar did play and miss initially before finding his feet to square-drive Irfan besides guiding Sreesanth towards the cover picket. Soon an R.P. Singh bouncer was treated with disdain, the hook directing the ball over the square-leg fence and coach Greg Chappell's words during the Challenger series — Sachin's timing is returning — had acquired an ominous note.

Bowlers' turn

Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, J.P. Yadav and a few Karnataka under-22 bowlers also turned their arm over as the morning session stretched past noon. Meanwhile Gambhir, besides the usual slash and slam, scampered hard for his singles egged on by Tendulkar while biomechanical analyst Ian Fraser, who donned the garb of a standby umpire, and Greg Chappell, who either stood at square leg or in the slips, watched the action at close range. Physio John Gloster and trainer Gregory King, who doubled up as the wicket-keeper, also chipped in their support during the game.

After their 30 minutes out in the sun, the Tendulkar-Gambhir pair was replaced by Yuvraj Singh and Venugopala Rao. The new partnership was marked by Yuvraj's sweeps of the spinners and Venugopala Rao's drives. Subsequently, Irfan and Suresh Raina, J.P. Yadav and M.S. Dhoni, Agarkar and Harbhajan also had their turns at the batting crease.

Kirmani drops in

The entire session was recorded on video by analyst S. Ramakrishnan. Wicket-keeping legend and former chairman of selectors Syed Kirmani dropped in for a while and had a chat with Tendulkar besides telling the media that the current team "has the right mix of youth and experience." The afternoon session was spent inside the NCA as the players along with the support staff did a closed-door video-analysis of the Sri Lankan team.

On Friday, the players will have a 50-overs practice match before winding up the camp and flying back to their respective homes. The team will then assemble at Nagpur for the first one-dayer on October 25. Skipper Rahul Dravid and deputy Virender Sehwag, will join the team at Nagpur.

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