Young pacers trouble Kohli and Rohit in nets as India begin prep for New Zealand ODIs

The Indian ODI team has begun preparations for the five-match ODI series against New Zealand. The team held its first practice session on Sunday, with all eyes on two players, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Both are highly experienced, but they had to work hard in the nets because they faced young fast bowlers from their own team. The session was designed with New Zealand's pitches and conditions in mind, and the young bowlers bowled impressively.

Three young fast bowlers, Akib Nabi, Anshul Kamboj and Gurnoor Brar, bowled testing spells in the net session. Brar is tall and made full use of his height. The ball was getting extra bounce, so the batters struggled against the short ball. The ball was coming straight at the body.

Kamboj's line and length were accurate, and not one of his deliveries went astray. But Nabi drew the most talk, especially while bowling to Kohli. Everyone watched in amazement.

ODI captain Shubman Gill was not present at the practice, so the cameras stayed trained on Kohli and Rohit. The net session was meant to see how the senior batters play in New Zealand-like conditions, but in the end the talk kept returning to these three young bowlers.

Nabi has recently returned from playing an unofficial Test for India A in Lincoln, where he performed superbly. He has been picked in the ODI squad for the New Zealand series in place of the injured Prasidh Krishna. He made full use of the opportunity. He repeatedly beat the outside edge of the bat, and his swing was so good that even the experienced batters were deceived. He troubled Kohli a great deal.

At times Kohli played shots with fine timing, but on many occasions Nabi beat him. Inswingers hit Kohli on the pad and thigh pad, while the deliveries going away kept him tied up. At one point Kohli looked slightly irritated.

But Kohli is Kohli. After a while he put the difficult phase behind him and looked full of energy again. After practice, he was seen chatting, laughing and joking with Rohit at the edge of the ground.

The session was not easy for the other batters either. Rohit did not hurry. He had planned to play carefully, and, judging the pace of the pitch, first made his defence secure and played some good shots along the way. KL Rahul later came in for a short while to practise. Ruturaj Gaikwad also spent time facing these fast bowlers.

Overall, even before leaving for New Zealand, the young bowlers have given the senior players good practice. If Nabi keeps bowling like this, he could prove a big game-changer in New Zealand.