Uncertainty over the availability of Wriddhiman Saha, who had a split webbing in his right hand, for the first One-Day International against Sri Lanka seems to be over, as the wicketkeeper batsman looked fit ahead of the opening game, in Cuttack, on Sunday.
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The Bengal wicketkeeper, who impressed during this year's Indian Premier League, looked in full flow during a full-fledged Indian training session under stand-in captain Virat Kohli.
Saha batted for about 15 minutes and looked at ease. Later a team official said the wicketkeeper-batsman is "available" for the series opener at the Barabati Stadium.
Saha had injured his right hand while playing for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-final against South and unable to bat in the second innings.
The 30-year-old has played two Tests and six ODIs for the senior national team in the sporadic chances he got due to the ever-imposing presence of regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Dubbed as a classical wicketkeeper, best suited for the longer version, Saha has an impressive record in first class cricket.
In 90 List A matches so far, he has scored 2536 runs at a decent average of 43.72, with two hundreds and 18 half-centuries. He has also taken 109 catches and effected 12 stumpings.
Meanwhile, the Indian cricketers toiled for about three hours on Friday morning. Apart from Saha, the highlight of the session was the showing of Ravichandran Ashwin, who is making a comeback after being 'rested' for the India-West Indies series.
India's frontline spinner for quite some time now, he was all padded up as he was the first to start proceedings in the batting nets before the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina came in to bat.
Not only did he bat long, he was seen bowling in tandem with the likes of left-arm spinner Akshar Patel and Amit Mishra and was the last to leave the field.
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It was a no-nonsense approach for the Kohli-led young turks who headed straight to the nets after a bit of stretching, without opting for a football match, a feature in India's net sessions under Dhoni.
Among the bowlers, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma looked very impressive with great pace and bounce as they bowled in tandem, while the other pace duo of Varun Aaron and Dhawal Kulkarni also bowled well.
It would be interesting to see whether India is tempted to go for a third seamer on a track that looks a bit green.
The Sri Lankans, who arrived in the afternoon, opted for a day's rest.
Both the teams will train on Saturday ahead of the five-match ODI series which was hastily-planned after the visiting West Indies pulled out midway after playing the fourth ODI in Dharmasala because of a pay dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Apart from Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Ranchi and Kolkata will host the matches of the series from November 2-16.
