Leicester, June 26: India made the most of their four-day practice match against Leicestershire at Grace Road with Ravichandran Ashwin, who had recently tested positive for Covid-19 picking up two wickets.
Ashwin missed the first four Tests of the series, but the pitch behaviour in England could mean there are grounds for Ashwin to play ahead of Shardul Thakur.
Jasprit Bumrah kept bowling for both sides and managed to get two spells in. Mohammed Shami bowled a fiery spell after lunch, which included a dropped catch of Hanuma Vihari.
Coming in at No 3, Vihari’s form is somewhat of a concern. His three innings in the match were 3 off 23, 20 off 55 and 26 off 86.
Shubman Gill, meanwhile, scored a quickfire 62 off 77 balls, adding to his total of 59 off 62 in his previous two innings of the match.
Gill may not have switched on, but his dismissal was disappointing.
Two balls before lunch, Ashwin moved his fielder from deep midwicket to deep square leg, and then bowled the last ball right before the break on the leg stump.
Despite noticing the fielding change, Gill swept it straight to the fielder.
He also managed to get one to drop on Leicestershire captain Sam Evans, and then made the ball turn past him to get him stumped.
In the three innings that he bowled, Bumrah completed a total of 29 overs but picked up only the wicket of Virat Kohli.
Leicestershire needed 367 to win on the last day and reached 219 for 4 in 66 overs before the teams agreed on a draw just after tea.
Louis Kimber scored an unbeaten half-century. (Agencies)
