The practice encounter between India and Australia Prime Minister’s XI with pink balls, scheduled for one day, was modified into a 46 overs-a-side affair on the second day due to rain on the first day. India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field. Mohammed Siraj was handed the pink ball on the first delivery. Matt Renshaw took the strike while Sam Konstas was at the other end. Just when Siraj was about to bowl the first delivery, Renshaw pulled out of his stance as he got distracted by security personnel standing by the sight screen.
Renshaw hastily pointed at the direction where the apology was warranted before pointing back to Siraj . An annoyed Siraj turned toward the sight screen behind him and said, “Oh bhai garden mai ghoom raha hai kya (Brother are you roaming around a garden).” This was in reference to Rohit’s earlier viral one-liner which came during India’s home Test series against England earlier this year.
Shubman Gill, meanwhile, put all doubts regarding his alleged thumb injury to rest with an elegant fifty while skipper Rohit Sharma kept cards very close to his chest by entering the fray at No. 4 in India’s curtailed pink-ball warm-up game against Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra on Sunday. Visitors won the match by six wickets.
However, it is yet to be seen whether the Indian captain has it in him to open in the second Test against Australia, starting Friday in Adelaide.
This was a 46-overs-a-side game which India won by chasing down an easily set target of 241 in 42.5 overs but kept batting until the last over.
For Australia, Test hopeful Sam Konstas made a century of 107 off 97 balls futile.
The Indian team management was tactical in its choices as Kohli and Bumrah decided on facing each other at the nets rather than giving any evidence to the Aussie think-tank.
The most amusing part about this is that Ravichandran Ashwin, who was absent from the Perth Test, was sighted with the nets, most probably bowling to Kohli. His last Pink-ball Test was held at Adelaide in 2020-21, where he had an outstanding performance with a four-wicket haul.
Ravindra Jadeja, however, managed to bowl a few overs and batted for some time.
Rohit persisted with the opening name of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, but himself fell to number four; however, the Compton game has been limited by just 11 deliveries as he edged one to the slips under the night lights.
Singh’s news for India was now Gill’s batting: After a gaping square cut first for seamer Mahli Beardman, it looked like his fractured left thumb had completely healed.
Both Jaiswal (45 off 59 balls) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (42 off 32 balls) – two players with virtually no experience of facing the pink ball at domestic level – threw their bats around and enjoyed some runs.
The huge crowd of 1000 Indian fans cheering at Manuka Oval was left disappointed when Rishabh Pant refused to bat.
Harshit has already won the trust of the team management with a good debut Test at Perth and today picked four wickets to make a serious case for himself as a wicket-taking bowler.
