Offie Ashwin trains, gives hope to skipper Kohli

MOHALI: These days, Indian Test captain Virat Kohli's main worry is the fitness of his premier off-spinner and match-winner Ravichandran Ashwin.
The tall Tamil Nadu bowler suffered a side strain in the first ODI against South Africa in Kanpur and was consequently ruled out for the rest of the ODI series. AB de Villiers then ran amok and smashed three centuries as South Africa put it across India 3-2.
In the preceding T20 Internationals though, Ashwin had troubled the Proteas batsmen considerably, especially de Villiers, getting the better of the South African talisman twice in as many games.
Ashwin has been picked in the Test squad to face South Africa and Kohli will hope that his go-to man is in the playing XI when he goes out for the toss on Thursday morning at the PCA Stadium.
Kohli's confidence must have been boosted on Monday when he saw Ashwin bowl for nearly an hour under the watchful eyes of team physio Patrick Farhart and strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu. Ashwin made a surprise visit to the stadium and was seen running, bending and throwing balls to Farhart.
The offie then progressed to the nets and joined Murali Vijay, Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Varun Aaron.
The five opted to indulge in some light practice, although no nets session was scheduled for the Indian team. Ashwin did roll his arm over for a considerable length of time, while Kohli was seen encouraging his prime weapon.
Ashwin has been tagged as the "main threat" by the Proteas and many believe, including South African middle-order batsman Faf du Plessis, that the series will be decided on how the visiting team negotiates Ashwin.
At the nets, Kohli was the last batsman to leave. He kept on batting for an extra half-hour, when others decided to call it a day.
The local net bowlers, especially the medium-pacers, were instructed to keep on bowling outside the sixth stump -an area where the skipper has had some issues in the last two years.