ENG vs IND: Rohit Sharma joins team for first training session in Leicestershire

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma joined the Test squad for the first training session that was held in Leicestershire in preparation for the one-off Test match against the hosts England. The Indian team arrived with the Test specialists in London a few days back and underwent two practice sessions. They have now shifted their base to Leicestershire as they are all set to take on the county club in a four-day practice game that will take place from June 24 to June 27.

It has been learned that the first batch of Test specialists which included Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Shardul Thakur left from Mumbai and arrived in London on June 16. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, who were part of the T20Is against South Africa, were the latest to travel after the series ended while Rohit arrived on June 17, a day after the first batch arrived in the UK.

KL Rahul ruled out with a groin injury

The one-off Test will be a continuation of the previous year’s five-match Test series where the final Test had to be called off with a lot of Covid-19 cases inside the Indian camp. India are currently leading the series 2-1 and Rohit was one of the star batters who played a big role at the top of the order last year. He will not have the company of KL Rahul at the top of the order who has been ruled out with a groin injury.

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Notably, there will be two new captains on each side with Rohit taking up the leadership for India in the longest format. England named Ben Stokes as the captain after Joe Root stepped down and they have had an excellent start to the captaincy reigns by winning the home series against New Zealand recently.

Meanwhile, Rohit hasn’t been in the best of touches with the bat of late and has struggled for consistency. He had one of his lowest returns in an IPL season recently in the 2022 edition for the Mumbai Indians and will be looking to come back strong in this series.