Mixed results for India from 1st tour game

India witnessed a mixed start to their two-and-a-half month long tour to England even as rains played spoilsport in their first three-day practice game against Leicestershire here.
While two out of the three days were affected by rain, the only positive to take out of the match for the visitors in their batting performance.
India's top-order was able to spend good time in the middle on day one. Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir and Cheteshwar Pujara all scored half-centuries, while Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma too played confidence-boosting knocks.
Only Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli missed out, but the duo would be eyeing at India's next practice game to be played at Derbyshire next week.

But what would worry India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher the most is the below-par showing of the bowling department against Leicesterchire.
In the absence of veteran Zaheer Khan, the bowling attack led by Ishant Sharma, who has past experience of playing in English conditions, looked ordinary.

Leicestershire batsmen hammered the Indian bowolers into submission, racking up an impressive 349 for five in only 62 overs in reply to the visitors' 333 for four scored on the first day.
Even though it is too early to question Indian bowling unit's capability, the conditions at Grace Road yesterday were very conducive to swing and seam bowling.

Indian bowlers failed to utilise the conditions and gain proper confidence ahead of tough challenges ahead.
While Pankaj Singh, Mohammad Shami and Varun Aaron bowled well in patches, none of them could really get on top of the young Leicestershire batsmen and prevent them from scoring.
Ishwar Pandey and Bhuvneshwar Kumar couldn't handle the conditions too well either, struggling with their lengths while Ishant had a totally off-day inspite of bagging two wickets later.