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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on November 16 posted a short highlights video of Team India's Day 1 match simulation in Perth, a week ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 opener.
In captain Rohit Sharma's absence, it was clear that KL Rahul was considered an option to open the innings. Rahul who registered low scores for India A against Australia A looked in good touch. He negotiated well with the short balls but his stay at the crease was ended by a lethal blow on right elbow by Prasidh Krishna's delivery. Rahul did not take further part in the simulations.
Jaiswal in his typical fashion looked to attack the bowlers. However, like he struggled in South Africa, the bounce got the better of him and he departed after scoring 15 runs. Virat Kohli hit a few exquisite shots as well before he fell to Mukesh Kumar. Kohli was caught at second slip off Mukesh Kumar's bowling. After the dismissal, he headed straight to the nets and batted for half an hour.
Rishabh Pant was not comfortable against the short ball. He did not look to defend and looked for boundary. However, he got bowled by young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy who is yet to make his Test debut. Reddy also got the wicket of in-form wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel who was caught in the slips. Shubman Gill looked cautious in the middle. He was undone by a short delivery from Navdeep Saini.
As it was a match simulation and not an official match, a few Indian batters walked out to bat again. Jaiswal was not at his attacking self and adopted a cautious approach as well. He scored an unbeaten half-century. Gill did well in his second attempt as well. When Kohli and Pant came on to bat, they were targetted by a barrage of short balls by Krishna and Reddy. Kohli looked uncomfortable at first but found his groove as he spent more time on the crease. Pant did not change his approach and was eventually knocked over by Mukesh.
Kohli returning to bat also quashed reports of him suffering an injury. He underwent scans but there was nothing serious. However, there is no further update on Rahul yet. It is yet to be seen whether he will be able to recover before the series opener.
Meanwhile, skipper Rohit and wife Ritika Sajdeh welcomed their second child, a baby boy, on November 15. Rohit is likely to be available for the Perth Test starting November 22 putting an end to India's batting woes.
India's 18-man Test squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
