With the second Test against the West Indies set to begin in Delhi on Friday, Team India took a brief pause from preparations for a different kind of team activity, and attended a relaxed dinner hosted by head coach Gautam Gambhir at his residence in the capital. The squad, along with the support staff, arrived together by bus for the informal gathering on Wednesday evening. Dressed in casual wear, the players enjoyed a quiet night away from the cricket field.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!India skipper Shubman Gill kept things simple in a brown T-shirt, jeans and black glasses, while most teammates including Jasprit Bumrah, Dhruv Jurel, Axar Patel, KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna opted for white outfits. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, bowling coach Morne Morkel, and BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla were also present. Speaking about the dinner ahead of the second Test, Gill said such get-togethers play an important role in team bonding. “Team dinners, I think, used to happen before as well. Team dinners, in any tour, you go. So, most of the players are very busy. Many of the players have their own families. In the ground, we meet, spend a lot of time together. But a lot of conversations are limited. So, it is important that for any team, that you know each other off the field as well,” Gill said. He added that the team tries to do this multiple times over the course of a series.
“So, I think, the team dinners that we do, we try two or three times in every series, that the team comes together once, and there is a very light atmosphere,” the Indian skipper added.
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The dinner came at a time when India hold a 1–0 lead in the two-match series after an emphatic innings and 140-run win in Ahmedabad. Vice-captain Ravindra Jadeja starred with a brilliant all-round display, while KL Rahul (100), Dhruv Jurel (125) and Jadeja (104*) powered India to a massive first-innings total.
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