Indian captain Shubman Gill invited left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar of the Punjab Kings to train with the national squad prior to the second Test match against England at Edgbaston. Following a respectable IPL 2025 campaign, the 29-year-old joined the Indian squad on Saturday during their practice session in Birmingham as a guest net bowler.
The tourists traveled to Birmingham for the second Test of the five-match series following a dismal loss in the first Test at Headingley, where England chased down a 371-run target. Brar, meantime, disclosed that he got a text message from Shubman Gill the day before he joined the team’s practice session and that he is now in the UK visiting his wife’s family in Swindon.
“My wife is from Swindon. It’s very close to Birmingham, it’s a 1-1.5 hour drive. I was talking to Shubman (Gill), he texted me yesterday. So I thought, let’s go and practice there (Birmingham). The way he (Arshdeep) is doing it, it feels good. I feel very proud. It’s a different feeling. It feels like you are among your own family,” Brar said in the BCCI video.
The left-arm spinner wearing a non-official training gear was seen bowling to Gill, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, and the other batters present in the practice session. His Punjab Kings teammate, Arshdeep Singh, revealed that meeting familiar faces in a foreign land feels special. “You come to a foreign country and you see familiar faces. So you can enjoy together,” he said.
Jagjit Singh reveals sharing bowling tips with Arshdeep Singh
Harpreet Brar was joined by another domestic pacer, Chandigarh’s Jagjit Singh Sandhu. Jagjit has also expressed how thrilled he is to be joining as a guest net bowler. He added that he played age-group cricket alongside Washington Sundar, Gill, Pant, and Arshdeep. He also talked about how, at the age of 16, he gave Arshdeep bowling advice.
“So, Rishabh Pant and I played in the Under-19 Zone for One Day. Shubman Gill, when it was my last under-19 season, it was his first. I played with Akash Deep in the Delhi Cup. I played with Washington Sundar in the under-19 zonal games. He was in the South zone, and I was in the North zone. Arshdeep is my junior. When I was 19, he was 16. I used to tell him when he was 16 how to bowl, how to run up, and all that. And even today, he was asking me which ball swing is better, which batter should be bowled from.”
Jagjit Singh
“When I was young, I used to follow him a lot. Jagjit is his name, and everyone calls him Punjabi. At that time, he was playing as a senior, under-19. So, I was in the under-16 zone. Whatever he used to do, I used to try and follow him. I learned a lot from him. And now, he says, Yes, I remember the old days when you were young, when you were new here.”
Arshdeep Singh
