30 November,2024 07:43 AM IST | Canberra | R Kaushik
India captain Rohit Sharma watches Day 4 of the Perth Test on November 25, a day after his delayed arrival in Australia following the birth of his child. Pics/Getty Images
As the Indian team made its way from Hotel Realm, not too far away, to the Manuka Oval on Friday afternoon for their only full session with the pink ball ahead of their two-day match against a Prime Minister's XI, a thin film of rain welcomed them. Thick, grey clouds hung menacingly over the Australian capital, threatening to scupper a meaningful training session, but the Indians found ways and means to dodge the elements and get some serious practice time under their belts.
The PM's XI is a reasonably competitive side, led by Jack Edwards and includes internationals Scott Boland and Matt Renshaw as well as Sam Konstas, the New South Wales batter who, it is expected, will make his Test debut at some stage over the next six weeks. All of them will go all out to make an impression on George Bailey, the chief selector, and national skipper Pat Cummins. For the Indians, on the other hand, the goal is simple - get all their batters and bowlers to have a feel of the pink ball, with its pronounced lacquer, before hitting Adelaide, where the day-night Test begins on December 6.
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Much of the attention at the shortened training session was on Rohit Sharma, the captain who joined the team a day before victory was secured in Perth on Monday, and Shubman Gill, the No. 3 who broke his left thumb nearly a fortnight ago and hasn't had a batting stint since.
Both took full part with the bat on Friday, Rohit moving superbly into his strokes against pacers Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Yash Dayal and Mukesh Kumar, and Gill showing no signs of discomfort as he graduated from gentle underarms and slightly quicker overarms from assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate to hitting the nets against the pacers and spin twins Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin.
Only two of the half dozen practice pitches were available for action and the Indians tried to make the most of them, though that also meant some batters didn't or couldn't pad up. That shouldn't be a dampener, no pun intended. This two-day fixture is quite literally a practice game and all batters will bat and all bowlers will bowl during the contest, after which the Indians will have potentially three net sessions at the Adelaide Oval before the second Test.
Abhishek Nayar, the other assistant coach, insisted that a cricket ball was a cricket ball, never mind what its colour was. Simplistic as it might sound, there is an element of logic to that, though the heavier pink ball comes with its own set of challenges which might be magnified in the case of a team like India, who don't play as much day-night Test cricket as some of the other nations, including Australia.
For the PM's XI, the prospect of having a tilt at Rohit's men must be mouth-watering. Former skipper Tim Paine, the head coach of the side, insisted that contrary to popular opinion, there was plenty of depth in Australian cricket which, he added, would become obvious over the next couple of days.
