The Indian men’s cricket squad is scheduled to play a two-day warm-up match against the Prime minister’s XI, commencing November 30 in Manuka Oval, Canberra. In the course of the match, Indian players will also be introduced to the pink ball due to the upcoming day-night Test in Australia Assed between December 6-10 at the Adelaide oval. Last March 2022, India last played a Test match which was a pink ball test and during the day-night test match against Australia in 2020, Indians batted poorly managing only 36 runs in the second bat.
Tim Paine, the former captain of the Australian Test team, was named head coach of the Prime Minister XI, on Friday, and the former wicketkeeper is eager to see Indian stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the two-day pink ball warm-up game. The president of the Indian Cricket Board Trehan Tim Paine noted that during the previous tour in 2018, the Indians found it very hard when they last played under pink lights so he hopes that the tourists will be aggressive and have most of their key players in their first game.
“Hopefully, they (India) will approach it with some of their best players, and they have some of the best players in the world. They had it tough, however, when they faced the pink ball in the Adelaide Test (2020-21), and for the game and for cricket fans in Canberra’s sake, it would be great to see the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli; some of their best players will be there,” Paine said while being quoted by Cricket ACT.
When it comes to coaching himself, Paine argued, “I guess as a young coach who’s just starting out, any opportunity you get to be put in charge of a group is a good one, and so I am relishing that. Further, I look forward to interaction with some of our most vibrant upcoming cricketers across Australia, which should be fun as well.”
Circumstances under which he was appointed as Australia’s captain in 2018 were due to the enduring suspension of Steve Smith, David Warner and the entire leadership group who were suspended for a year due to the ball tampering scandal while in South Africa in 2018. However, under the captaincy of Paine, the Baggy Green side was defeated twice in a row by India in Test series.
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