India vs England: KS Bharat reveals 'India have worked on sweep shots' ahead of second Test

India’s KS Bharat refused to make a big deal about England winning the first Test at Hyderabad and taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. The wicketkeeper-batter credited centurion Ollie Pope and England for their win, but added that Team India is also working on their shortcomings.

“They really played very well. Credit to them. Ollie Pope really played good shots,” Bharat said in the pre-match press conference. “In our team meetings we spoke about the things we could have done better and yes, we certainly have few plans. (We are) definitely looking at the way how they went about the first game, playing some reverse. That’s something we have definitely worked on.”

England batters played a lot reverse sweep and sweep shots to successfully tackle Indian spinners at Hyderabad. Indian batters were also seen practicing those shots ahead of the Visakhapatnam Test but Bharat said that the plan is not to play sweep or reverse sweep shots just for the sake of it.

“Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks. It’s not that we don’t know how to sweep, reverse sweep or pedal, but on that particular day depending on the situation of the team, we as batters take our calls,” Bharat said.

“And it is very clear to us to bat with freedom. We also practised in the reverse before the first game. But playing out in the centre, it’s the batters’ individual plan.

“If the team demands us to play in a certain way, then we are up to it,” said the 30-year-old.

Debutant Tom Hartley was the star bowler for England as he took seven wickets in the second innings to spin the visitors to a famous 28-run win. Bharat praised Hartley for his efforts but said that there was no need for India to panic in a long Test series.

“We don’t play the bowlers, we play the ball. On any given day, it can be experienced or inexperienced (bowler), there is nothing like inexperienced in cricket. On that particular day, if someone bowls well, you have to give credit to them.

“After the game, the atmosphere is absolutely relaxed. They told us not to panic, which we are not. But then the instruction is very clear, it’s a long Test series and we have played a lot of series like this in the past,” he said.

Six Indian players train on Thursday

Only six Indian players trained on Thursday as compared to Wednesday when the full squad was at the training session. Thursday is an optional training session.

The six players who came to train on Thursday were Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sourabh Kumar, Dhruv Jurel, Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan.

Gill was seen playing a lot of left-arm spin.