Bangalore: Players ranging from Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman to the young hopefuls like S. Badrinath and Rohit Sharma sweated it out at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) premises as the four-day fitness camp for batsmen commenced here on Saturday.

The usual fans hanging on to trees outside the KSCA (B) ground were absent and the media presence was minimal, and it was understandable as the focus is on the coach selection process in Chennai.

Sachin Tendulkar was conspicuous by his absence and is expected to reach the city late on Sunday. His Mumbai teammate Wasim Jaffer, who is down with flu, was also absent and is a doubtful starter for the camp.

The quartet of Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and M.S. Dhoni, busy with the Afro-Asia Cup in Chennai, are expected to join later while seamer S. Sreesanth was a surprising presence in a camp meant for his batting colleagues.

Sreesanth will also attend the session on Sunday, as he wants to make up for the two days he lost in the Mysore camp for the bowlers, as he had to play for the Asian XI in the Afro-Asia Cup Twenty20 match.

On Saturday morning, the batsmen trooped into the NCA after their routine yoga session at the team hotel. They had a series of fitness tests and some drills for core-stability and shoulder-stability.

The players were confined indoors and stepped out of the NCA late in the evening and left for the team hotel where they had a session in the swimming pool.

Trainer Gregory King supervised the sessions and was assisted by fielding coach Robin Singh and trainers Ramji Srinivasan and Muthu Kumar.

Meanwhile, seamer V.R.V. Singh, who was down with viral fever during the fitness camp for the bowlers at Mysore, is recovering at a city hospital. According to sources, he has got better and might be discharged on Sunday.

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