BCCI secretly unveils India's new training kit for Australia tour ...

When there is Team India, there is buzz, especially when they are touring Australia. The anticipation is at an all-time high. Perhaps that is one of the biggest reasons why India prefer to keep their training sessions away from the public eye. That's exactly what they did during the T20 World Cup in 2022. But, coming to think of it, can an Indian team go about their business secretly? Yes, to a certain extent, if they want to but not entirely. The Indian team management tried their best by covering the WACA nets to give privacy to the players but they were not entirely successful.

Indian cricketers practicing at the WACA

Video footage and photos of Indian cricketers Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and KL Rahul batting in the nets in India's first training session ahead of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy got leaked online on Tuesday. More than the way the cricketers were practising, the fact that caught the eye was their training kit.

Unlike their original match-day uniforms, which are generally in different shades of blue, Team India's training kit has no colour codes. Although they have donned orange, red, fluorescent green, and white training kits before, the new kit that BCCI and India's official kit manufacturer, Adidas, kept under wraps was light grey.

Jaiswal, Pant, Gill and Rahul wore the grey and black practice kit on Tuesday while facing different bowlers.

Notably, neither the BCCI nor Adidas hosted a formal launch for the new training kit.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir said on Monday that Jasprit Bumrah, as designated vice-captain, will lead India in the opening Test against Australia in Perth if regular skipper Rohit Sharma is unavailable for the game for personal reasons. The straight-talking former opener also indicated that KL Rahul could be asked to open the innings in place of Rohit.

The second batch of the Indian players is leaving for Perth, but Rohit has stayed back. Uncertainty remains if Rohit will compete in the series-opener."At the moment, there is no confirmation. We will let you know exactly what the situation will be. Hopefully, he is going to be available, but everything you want to know, you will get to know before the start of the series," Gambhir said.

"Bumrah is the vice-captain, so obviously If Rohit is not available, he is going to lead in Perth," the coach added.

Rohit’s possible absence also leaves a spot vacant at the top of the batting order and Gambhir said one among the uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran and KL Rahul, who both played in the unofficial Tests against Australia A for India A, will be picked."Obviously, there is Easwaran, there is KL there. We will take a call closer to the first Test match if Rohit is not available. There are options. There are quite a lot of options in this spot. Once it gets closer to the first Test match, we will try and play the best playing XI who is going to do the job for us," he added.

However, he gave enough indications that Rahul's experience might prevail over rookie Easwaran's current form.

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