Watch: Team India enjoys field training at Kandy with new head coach Gautam Gambhir

Team India had a fun field training at Kandy with new head coach Gautam Gambhir on the ground monitoring the drill. The Indian men’s cricket team under new head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav arrived to a warm welcome, with the recently-crowned T20 world champions playfully mingling with fans and giving them some precious moments.

The 15-member India team along with the support staff had left Mumbai on Monday after a pre-departure press conference addressed by Gambhir, who took over Rahul Dravid as the national coach, and BCCI’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar. They arrived the same day in Pallekele after a short layover in Colombo.

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Gambhir had recently expressed his regret for not using Suryakumar’s potential while he they were together in the Kolkata Knight Riders, but the latter said there was enough to make a turnaround.

Suryakumar Yadav, the newly-appointed T20I captain, on Friday asserted that India will continue to play the aggressive brand of cricket which hallmarked the regime of his predecessor Rohit Sharma. Under Rohit, who retired from T20Is after the World Cup triumph in the Americas, India played a template-changing attacking game from last year’s ODI showpiece at home.

“The same train will go ahead; only the engine has changed and the bogies remain unchanged,” Suryakumar said on the eve of the first of the three T20Is against Sri Lanka. “Nothing changes; the brand of cricket remains the same. It (the captaincy role) doesn’t change anything. It has given me an added responsibility. It is good that now I can do a ‘walk the talk’,” he added.

For that, Suryakumar said he wanted to tread the path that Rohit had set during his captaincy stint. “What I have learnt from Rohit is that he was always a leader on the ground and off it,” he said. “He was not just a captain — there is a lot of difference between the two. He was a leader who stood in the middle of the group and showed people the way.

“How to play T20 cricket and how to win a tournament? That is what I have learnt from him,” he elaborated.

Suryakumar, who pipped T20 WC vice-captain Hardik Pandya for India captaincy, said the all-rounder’s role will remain the same.

(With PTI inputs)