The ball went into the nets in Perth. There were four of them available for training and even the one where R Ashwin was bowling his off-spin gave a good kick. India’s XI for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which begins here on Friday, could consist of those who can provide pace and bounce with the ball and combat it with the bat. In such conditions, KL Rahul will return to the top of the order, Devdutt Padikkal will likely be No. 3, while Dhruv Jurel is almost certain to take No. 6.
Here’s how India’s XI is shaping up for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Filling the vacant starter spot shouldn’t be a big deal. On the one hand, India knew that Rohit might not make it and in Rahul they have someone who has done the job before. Rahul kept himself quite busy in the nets on Tuesday, concentrating on his defense and shouting loudly when what he tried to do occasionally didn’t work out.
Gill’s injury, while playing on the field, was unexpected and last minute. India had to adapt on the fly and did so by asking Padikkal, who was in Australia with his A team, to stay back. Padikkal batted with the first group on Tuesday morning. His height and reach can present a problem for bowling attacks as balls of good length suddenly become manageable, but that is in batting-friendly conditions, which they are not.
Like most of India’s batsmen in Tuesday’s three-hour session, he was a bit up and down, ending his session with a rough cut against the spinners, his back and cross movements were very quick and fluid, but against the rapids was largely reserved and its edges suffered quite a bit of damage. Padikkal fared well against Australia A at Mackay, facing 276 balls in two innings at number 4 and scoring 124 runs. He came in at number 5 in the next unofficial test on a very spicy MCG pitch, but it didn’t go so well.
India have another top-order batsman in their team and have scored many runs in domestic
cricket, but have not been able to shake off an initial expression of looking a little uncomfortable at the extra pace and bounce on offer on these pitches. Abhimanyu Easwaran only got the opportunity to bat in the nets alongside the bowlers. He is unlikely to be part of the Test match in two days’ time.
Favorite horse mackerel for position 6
Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant are locked in at numbers 4 and 5, leaving one more place up for grabs in the middle order.
The loudest sounds of the day – laughter first, then some jubilation – came when a sliding hook coming fast and hard at Sarfaraz Khan slipped through his fingers. The second loudest was the sound of Jurel’s bat coming down to reach the ball. These are the two players competing for the No. 6 spot and their day couldn’t have been more different.
Sarfaraz was on the periphery. In reality, he only ended up slipping when Rahul left him to practice the close catch of the spinner along with Yashasvi Jaiswal. Jurel’s journey also began here, in the third slip. The team then moved from the main field to the nets and that is where Jurel really stood out. He stood on his tiptoes and continued to lift balls downfield like a pro, his hands soft, the face of the bat pointing downwards and the ball falling dead in front of him. He also made a terrific quick throw on a fastball on the other end of the length spectrum. His decision-making and time getting behind the ball in Perth coupled with his performance in Melbourne (two fifties in ideal conditions) earlier this month could well have launched him into the XI on Friday.
India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel spent most of his time looking after Nitish Kumar Reddy, either standing where the umpire would be or walking back with Reddy to the top of his mark. He has the run of a fast bowler, but not the pace. His job was geared towards compensating for that as he tried to maintain a line outside the off stump and pin the batsman to the crease.
India seem to be waiting for Reddy to lengthen his batting at number 8 and give them a bowling option suited to these conditions – the role Shardul Thakur used to play in his recent overseas tours. If Reddy could go through 6-10 overs a day without losing too many runs, the frontline quicks could be rotated more efficiently.
The spin bowling position will likely favor Ashwin given that three of Australia’s key batsmen – Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey – are left-handed. Ravindra Jadeja did not bowl in the nets at the Optus Stadium, but he did go through a fairly long batting session.
Who will be Jasprit Bumrah’s partner?
Harshit Rana is gaining some momentum after his work in match simulation environments at the WACA. He spent much of that time bowling on the wicket and trying to catch his people on the bounce. He is 22 years old. It’s strong. He doesn’t have much first-class experience under his belt. But he’s been impressing the right people and that can often be more important than simple statistics. Rana didn’t play much in the nets on Tuesday.
It is not clear who might make way for him because Mohammed Siraj was one of India’s best performers on their last tour of Australia and Akash Deep is yet to give a performance that has flopped. He also had a long turn in the Perth nets, chasing India’s frontline batsmen. The same thing happened with Prasidh Krishna, and on at least one occasion he knew he had his man. “I heard a noise,” he said cheerfully as he exchanged notes with his bowling partners at the net. Between running and letting the ball fly, Prasidh had a quick one-on-one with Virat Kohli, whose gestures indicated how difficult it could be for a batsman to deal with long balls, not straight short ones, when they happen. to get up from the field of play.
The Optus Stadium surface has the same clay as the WACA. He will offer pace and bounce, although he will first have to cook in the heat of the sun and that was in short supply on Tuesday when rain forced the cancellation of Australia’s practice session. India are trying to adapt their eleven to suit those conditions, and have had to look beyond the inexperience of some of their players (Jurel, Reddy, Rana, Prasidh and Padikkal have played just seven Tests between them) and analyze your potential to do that happens.
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