In Ahmedabad, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel rested while the rest of the Indian team commenced training just two days after their Asia Cup victory, in preparation for the first of two Tests against the West Indies. The squad, including captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir, arrived late Monday night and practiced for nearly three hours at the Narendra Modi Stadium. With minimal turnaround time following the Asia Cup, which ended on Sunday, India must also manage player workloads for the upcoming World Test Championship series starting Thursday. Training began with light warm-ups and catching drills before moving to the nets, where all batters had extensive practice sessions and pace bowlers worked hard.
Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, who recently participated in a four-day unofficial Test for India A against Australia A, bowled for about 45 minutes as the weather improved. Both pacers displayed good rhythm, generating pace and bounce in the nets after a brief rain spell. After assessing the pitch upon arrival, Gambhir examined it again after the team’s training concluded. Openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul appeared to be in excellent form, along with wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, who captained India A in the unofficial Test. Middle-order batters B Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal also looked sharp, although skipper Gill faced challenges from both his fellow pacers and the throw-down specialist.