‘Catching yaar’: India players engage in intense fielding drills filled with banter ahead of England Tests

LONDON: Indian players engaged in intense fielding drills, which were topped up by a fun banter between the players as they continued to fortify their preparations for the upcoming Test series against England.

Fielding coach T Dilip orchestrated the fielding drills, which involved taking low and high catches and hitting the stumps from a distance, in a video posted by the BCCI. Vice-captain Rishabh Pant’s throw was a whisker away from hitting the stump, and he expressed his agony by saying, “Arey yaar.”

Focus Smiles

Fielding game point ft. #TeamIndia #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/PfYu1Gc30B

— BCCI (@BCCI) June 11, 2025

In one instance, Indian Test captain Shubman Gill was impressed when his Gujarat Titans teammate Sai Sudharsan took a sharp catch and said, “Catching yaar.” Towards the end of the video, Mohammed Siraj celebrated by jumping in the air after cleanly completing a catch.

After batting wizards Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli bid adieu to Test cricket last month, India was left short on experience. With India bereft of its torchbearers, the management turned to youngsters to mark the beginning of a new era.

The five-test tour of England starts June 20 at Leeds and lasts until August 2025. With India lining up without its batting bigwigs Rohit and Virat following their retirement from the game’s longest format, the onus lies on the Shubman-led revamped side to prove itself away from home in testing and gruelling English conditions.

The series will be held from June to August, with matches scheduled at Headingley in Leeds, Edgbaston in Birmingham, Lord’s and The Oval in London, and Old Trafford in Manchester.

India’s Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.

England squad for first Test vs India: Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Ben Stokes (capt), Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes. (ANI)