Captain Rohit Sharma and senior batter Virat Kohli arrived in Chennai as the Indian team kicked off their training camp ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh, starting next week.
The players got down to business on Friday with an intense session in the nets under the watchful eyes of Head Coach Gautam Gambhir, with Assistant Coach Abhishek Nayar and Bowling Coach Morne Morkel also helping out the players.
Rohit gave his team a pep talk before they started their first nets session of the new season, while Gambhir also spoke to his wards.
'The countdown starts as #TeamIndia begin their preps for an exciting home season,' BCCI said on X.
While Rohit landed in Chennai late on Thursday night, Kohli arrived from London early on Friday.
Jasprit Bumrah, K L Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and the rest of the players arrived on Thursday.
Their last assignment was the three match ODI series in Sri Lanka in August where they lost 0-2 after the first match finished in a tie.
This will be Team India's first Test assignment under Coach Gambhir as they take on a rejuvenated Bangladesh, who are high on confidence after whitewashing Pakistan 2-0 in the away Test series.
India face a gruelling schedule with 10 Test matches scheduled in the next five months. The Bangladesh series will be followed by A three Test series against New Zealand at home before they embark on a long tour of Australia for a high-profile series of five Test matches.
India will look to qualify for their third straight World Test Championship final. They are currently top of the WTC standings, with 68.52 percentage points; Australia are second with 62.50 points.
Courtesy of their series win in Pakistan, Bangladesh have jumped to fourth spot with 45.83 percentage points.
The first Test will be played at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai from September 19 while the second game will be played at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur from September 27.
