The Sri Lankan cricket team had an extended practice session as they dropped in at the Eden Gardens one hour before schedule and trained for four hours ahead of the first Test against India, starting on November 16. Scheduled to start training at 9am, the Lankans arrived an hour before and the main drill was centered around their batting, supervised by batting coach Thilan Samaraweera. Dinesh Chandimal and his batsmen were seen negotiating the spinners with paddle sweeps and reverse sweeps, a handy weapon to tackle the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav.
Having finished their respective batting sessions, each of their batsman, including Chandimal, were seen heading to the former Test batsman.
Samaraweera spoke to each of them individually and they later headed for a shadow practice session.
The Sri Lankan team landed in Kolkata eight days prior to the first Test and drew a two-day tour game against Board President's XI, captained by Sanju Samson.
Having opted for a day's rest after the two-day tour game at Jadavpur University second campus ground in Salt Lake, it was Sri Lanka's first training session at the Eden Gardens where they will play their first ever Test.
This is the Lankans' first tour to India since 2009 when they lost 0-2 in a three-Test series.
Sri Lanka will play a full series in India spanning more than six weeks, with the Tests followed by three ODIs and as many T20Is.
The tour will end with the third T20I in Mumbai on December 24.
- Sri Lanka have an extended training session at Eden
- Sri Lanka focus on batting during the practice session
- India face Sri Lanka in the opening Test, starting November 16