Light day for team as WC camp kicks-off

Wednesday saw the commencement of India's short pre-World Cup camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and the Indian team management seemed extra cautious about the players who are returning from injuries, especially after Praveen Kumar's exit from the mega tournament due to elbow injury.

Coach Gary Kirsten paid special attention to Delhi duo -- Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir -- who have recently recuperated from shoulder and elbow injuries respectively.

Both Sehwag and Gambhir didn't take part in the ODI series in South Africa keeping the World Cup in mind.

Sehwag was the first to hit the nets on Wednesday for about 30 minutes, followed by Gambhir and then Yuvraj Singh. Kirsten, who according to Indian team members never gets tired by giving throw downs, did the same for the trio.

After a much-needed 15-day break, the members of the squad seemed refreshed during their two-hour session.

The session started with a 30-minute football match between two groups in which coach Kirsten also participated and then most of the top-order batsmen save senior-most pro Sachin Tendulkar had a knock at the nets.

The maestro preferred spending some quality time at the NCA gymnasium.

The other Indian batsmen, including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan were also seen knocking the ball around at the adjacent nets.

Barring Harbhajan Singh, all the bowlers, including part-time spinners Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj, rolled their arms in the presence of bowling coach Simmons.

Simmons also paid special attention to fringe bowlers like Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin and S Sreesanth.

Harbhajan, preferred to stay away from the net session on Wednesday and was seen doing some light stretching exercises during the fag end of the session.

The serious business, however, is expected to start on Thursday as India play their first warm-up match against Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday before leaving for Chennai where they will round off the preparation with the second and the last practice match against New Zealand on February 16.