Zaheer put through paces under Gloster eye

BANGALORE, June 13: Bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh were certainly not taking things lightly as they ensured the players slogged it out for nearly three hours in the afternoon at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
The four-day skills camp which began on Wednesday saw only nine players - skipper Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Sachin Tendulkar, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Ajit Agarkar - of the 15-member ODI team announced for the Ireland and Scotland series stretch their sinews.
The remaining six - MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla and RP Singh - are expected to arrive late on Wednesday, as the strike called by Indian Airlines employees delayed their flights.
The training session began with the batsmen working at one nets while the bowlers toiled at the other. Zaheer Khan, who had hurt himself in Chennai during the Afro-Asia Cup, was busy working with physio John Gloster and did not bowl. Tendulkar had a long hit at the nets with trainer Gregory King bowling at him. Even Uthappa, Rohit Sharma and Karthik spent time at the nets.
Sreesanth worked on his line and length placing a few markers as Prasad kept a close watch on him and offered a tips in between.
Immediately after the net session, they teamed up for fielding practice. "The players have been responding really well in all the sessions," Prasad had said on Tuesday.
With the full strength expected to be present on the second day, the sessions are scheduled to begin from the morning.
Earlier, VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif and Dinesh Mongia, who were part of the batting camp, returned home.