The Indian cricket team on Thursday conducted an unseen training drill, vaguely resembling a wrestling bout, with a pair of players each seemingly striving to outdo each other, two days before the Boxing Day Test begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, reported PTI.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was the first to arrive at the nets for the training session, was put through a fitness test as he ran between the wickets with a bat on his hand. 

Jadeja had missed the final two T20Is and the first Test against the hosts due to a concussion and a hamstring injury suffered during the first T20I. He has a record of  213 wickets and 1869 runs in 49 Tests.

Also read: Melbourne Cricket Ground may hold successive Australia vs India Tests as COVID-19 looms in Sydney

Star of the T20I series, pacer T Natarajan bowled well at the nets and often managed to beat the outside edge of both stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara.

KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, who are set  to play in the second Test against an in-form Australian team, had a long hit at the nets.

While the players got busy at the nets following the warm up, chief coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and batting coach Vikram Rathour  were seen exchanging notes from the practice session.

Also read: Australian cricketers David Warner, Sean Abbott to miss Boxing Day Test against India

They could be seen having a long chat with Rahane, who will lead the team in the remaining three Tests in he absence of Virat Kohli, who has flown back to India for the birth of his child.

Shastri had a discussion with Rahul after the batsman’s net session, as well as with out-of-form Prithvi Shaw, who was also seen batting in the net against the likes of chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav.

Under the watchful eyes of head coach Justin Langer, the likes of star batsmen Steve Smith and Marnus Labuchagne also underwent an intense nets session at the MCG, with former Sri Lanka off-spinner Suraj Randiv bowling to them from the other end.

India trail the four-match rubber 0-1 after suffering an eight-wicket defeat to the hosts in the Day/Night first Test in Adelaide, where the visitors collapsed to their record lowest score 36 in their second innings.