Shami puts in the hard yards at India’s first training session ahead of England T20Is
On Sunday, Shami began by marking a spot on a good-length area on the practice pitches, and then warmed up by bowling with a half run-up for more than 20 minutes. Later, he bowled with his full run-up to openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma in the nets. In between, he practiced short- and long-range catching with fielding coach T Dilip and head coach Gautam Gambhir. After the net sessions ended, Shami closed the evening out with a ten-minute spell of bowling on the practice pitches. By the time his session wound down, Shami was bowling at nearly full tilt.
The fitness of Shami, 34, has been a concern for India for more than 12 months, and now he has been selected for the upcoming T20Is and ODIs against England to test his readiness for the Champions Trophy, which will begin on February 19 in Karachi. India will open their campaign against Bangladesh the next day in Dubai.
Rana and Hardik Pandya were the only two members of the squad who batted and bowled. Hardik also did some power-hitting with Rinku Singh and Dhruv Jurel, while Rinku and Tilak Varma largely faced the spin of Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar.
