How Rohit is preparing for Pakistan's pace battery

Captain Rohit Sharma sweated it out in the Indian team's optional net session in Melbourne on Friday, batting against fast throwdowns as he prepared for Sunday's T20 World Cup against Pakistan at MCG.

Rohit, who hasn't been among the runs recently, faced some fast left-arm and right-arm throwdowns from Sri Lankan specialist Nuwan Seneviratne trying to replicate Pakistan's bowling line-up which boasts of quick bowlers like Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah.

Pakistan received a huge boost with the return of Afridi who was sidelined due to a knee injury. The left-arm pacer dismissed Rohit and KL Rahul in last year's T20 World Cup, helping Pakistan win their first ever World Cup match in any format against India.

Rohit also had a long chat with the team's head coach Rahul Dravid during the net session.

Dinesh Karthik is set to take over the gloves as he also spent time in the nets honing his batting and wicketkeeping, while Rishabh Pant was not present. Karthik practiced the paddle scoop and reverse paddle scoop shots along with the pull shots against the pace bowlers.

Mohammad Shami worked up some great pace in the nets as the fast bowler aims to make up for his lack of match practice in the last few weeks..

Deepak Hooda also walked out for a net session to work on his batting.

Shardul Thakur and Mohammad Siraj, the standby players in the World Cup squad, also kept themselves in the groove as they bowled to the Indian batters in the nets.