India tour of Australia: Kohli's men start training

Bengaluru, November 14: The Indian cricket team, which arrived in Australia for a two-month long tour, hit the straps early by doing a little bit of training in the outdoors as they hit the gym later.

Team India had touched the base in Australia on Thursday and were whisked away to the Sydney Olympic Park where they are undergoing the mandatory 14-day quarantine as per the post COVID-19 health and travel guidelines.

After a day of rest, the players started with gym work and running at Sydney Olympic Park's Pullman Hotel.

The New South Wales government had given permission to the Indian team to practice during the quarantine period.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) posted pictures from their official Twitter handle of Rishabh Pant, who is part of the Test team, doing cycling while pace bowler T Natarajan, who has been included in the T20 squad in place of injured Varun Chakravarthy, is shown lifting dumbbells with his two hands.

Cheteshwar Pujara, also a part of Test squad is seen working out while pace bowler Shardul Thakur is seen stretching in the gym.

Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj are all shown doing some running on the field.

"Two days off the plane and #TeamIndia had their first outdoor session today. A bit of running to get the body moving," the BCCI tweeted.

Leg-spinner bowler Yuzvendra Chahal also posted a picture of his with Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav taken on the field.

"Back with my brother @imkuldeep18 and back on national duty for #TeamIndia," tweeted the leg-spinner.

India is playing three One-day Internationals, as many T20Is and four Test matches on their 69-day tour.

The tour Down Under officially begins with a three-match ODI series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on November 27.

Regular skipper Virat Kohli will return home after the first Test in Adelaide to be with his wife Anushka Sharma as the first family of Indian cricket are expecting their first child in January.

Kohli who will lead in both ODIs and T20s, will hand over the captaincy to Ajinkya Rahane for the remaining three Test matches.