BCCI Reveals India's New Training Kit for Australia Tour: Leaked Videos Surfacing Online

When Team India is on tour, especially in Australia, there is always a palpable buzz in the air. The excitement and anticipation reach a fever pitch. This is perhaps why India chooses to keep their training sessions away from the prying eyes of the public. During the T20 World Cup in 2022, the team decided to train in private, away from the media glare. However, can an Indian team truly go about their business secretly? The answer is yes, to some extent. The team management took measures to ensure privacy, such as covering the nets at the WACA ground. Despite their efforts, they were not entirely successful in keeping their training sessions under wraps. The eyes of the cricketing world are always on Team India, no matter how hard they try to maintain secrecy.

Video footage and photos of Indian cricketers Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant 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 is generally in different shades of blue, there are no colour codes for the training kit of Team India. They have donned orange, red, fluorescent green and white training kits before but the new kit that BCCI and India's kit manufacturers Adidas kept under wraps was in light grey.

Jaiswal, Pant and Rahul wore the grey 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.