'If Team Demands Us to Play in a Certain Way, Then We Are Up to It': KS Bharat

Wicket-keeper-batter KS Bharat has said that the Indian cricketers are ready to play conventional and reverse sweeps if the team management wants them to play but their primary focus will be on playing risk-free cricket and use their experience of playing on Indian pitches to tackle the challenges put up by English spinners.

Visakhapatnam: India's wicket-keeper batter KS Bharat on Thursday asserted that the Indian team players are ready to 'play in a certain way’ if the team management demands it and won't be afraid to play conventional or reverse sweep shots in the second Test against England starting here on Friday.

"If the team (management) demands us to play in a certain way, then we are up to it. Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks. It's not that we don't know how to sweep, reverse sweep or pedal (sweep), but on that particular day depending on the situation of the team, we as batters take our calls," Bharat said at the pre-match press conference.

The 30-year-old, who will be playing in his first game at his home ground, added, "We don't play the bowlers, we play the ball. On any given day, it can be experienced or inexperienced (bowler), there is nothing like inexperienced in cricket. On that particular day, if someone bowls well, you have to give credit to them."

"The team has worked on its shortcomings in the series-opener in which England staged a sensational comeback to win the game by 28 runs," he added.

After trailing by 190 runs from the first innings, England batters, especially Ollie Pope (196 off 278 balls), displayed exceptional sweeping skills and whacked India’s experienced spinners including Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel all over the park to take a match-winning lead of 231 runs. England crushed India by 28 runs in the first Test played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad.

"They (England) played very well. Credit to them. Ollie Pope played good shots," the right-hand batter said and praised England’s vice-captain's effort in the first Test.

"In our team meetings, we spoke about the things we could have done better and yes, we certainly have a few plans. (We are) looking at the way how they (England) went about the first game, playing some reverse (sweeps). That's something we have worked on. And it is very clear to us to bat with freedom. We also practised reverse (sweeps) before the first game. But playing out in the centre, it's the batters' individual plan," Bharat, who represents Andhra, stated.

"After the game, the atmosphere is relaxed. They (The team management) told us not to panic, which we are not. But then the instruction is very clear, it's a long Test series and we have played a lot of series like this in the past," added Bharat, who has played six Tests.

Six players train in an optional session

Meanwhile, after 28 run defeat in the first Test, all eyes are on India’s youngsters including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sourabh Kumar, Dhruv Jurel, Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan, who reported in the optional training session to finetune their skills and work on their weaknesses ahead of the Visakhapatnam Test.

With three senior players missing the second test including Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul, Patidar and Sarfaraz will be fighting for the number four position while three players including Saurabh Kumar, Washington Sunder and Kuldeep Yadav are eyeing the number seven spot of the playing XI.

Gill, who has not been able to replicate his white-ball form in Test cricket, would be keen to raise his hand when it is most needed while Shreyas Iyer, who is also struggling to convert his starts into hundred will be eyeing a big knock.

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