Just ahead of the Asia Cup 2025, the Indian players Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah were seen engaging in a very healthy contest at the ICC Academy in Dubai, when they were undertaking fielding drills and were later up against each other in the nets.
India has started their practice sessions at the ICC Academy in Dubai, ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup campaign, which begins on the 9th of September. India will kickstart their campaign against the UAE on the 10th of September.
Dubai has always been a favourable ground for the men in blue, and the Asia Cup matches will be played at Dubai and Abu Dhabi; hence, India spinners as well as batters can relish playing here. India begins Day 1 of their practice session with immense intensity.
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The session had started with the Indian team taking up fitness drills, stretching their pants, and then followed by huddles, which marked a great tone of leadership from skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
However, one player who looked very excited and looked enthusiastic with his fitness was Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah. This is a great sign for the Indian team if their frontline lead pacer is ready to go in with full efficiency.
However, vice-captain Shubman Gill poked fun at Bumrah amid the drills, saying, “Stiff legs.” Bumrah kept darting around the park with full intensity—diving, sprinting, and cutting angles, which obviously pleased fielding consultant T. Dilip.
Bumrah also did not keep mum, as he too jokingly reverted to Gill with a wave of his hand as he continued with the drills.
Bumrah ignores the coach’s order and then gets the better of Gill in the nets
Before they could walk into the nets, Team India players went through warm-up stretches, shuttle runs, soft throws, and high knees alongside their strength and fitness regulation coach Adrian Le Roux.
Though the coach kept reminding the players of “75% intensity!” Bumrah seemed to be ignorant of the cautions and kept steaming in full throttle towards Shubman Gill in the nets.
As the fitness drills ended, Bumrah next turned to bowling in the nets and once again engaged in another cat-and-mouse game with the Test skipper. After a ball being thrashed through covers, he bowled a perfect nip-backer that left Shubman Gill bamboozled.
Jitesh Sharma gets high-intensity drills on Day 1
After Shubman Gill made his comeback to the team, doubts were raised about Sanju Samson’s probable batting position in the Indian playing XI for the upcoming Asia Cup. Now, with the high-intensity drills for Jitesh Sharma, it seems Sanju is close to losing the gloves to the RCB keeper.
Jitesh got through a proper keeping workout – catches, drills, footwork – while Samson watched on. This might also be because Jitesh is making up for the lost time since his last competitive game came back in June, and Samson, on the other hand, recently played 6 games in the KCL.
