Ahead of a must-win clash which will pave the way for India to reach World Test Championship (WTC), players let themselves free as they celebrated Holi in team bus on March 7. Indian opener Shubman Gill posted a selfie video on Instagram where Virat Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma can be seen playing Holi.
In the video, Kohli can be heard singing ‘Calm down’ by Rema and Selena Gomez. Rohit then sprayed colour over Kohli followed by Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav shouting.
Rohit also posted a photo which had Suryakumar, Axar Patel, Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj and others.
India are set to face Australia in the fourth Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, Ahmedabad. The hosts were humbled by Steve Smith-led side in Indore Test as they won by nine wickets in a game that ended within seven sessions.
The pitch that provided assistance to spinners from the first hour of Day 1 has been rated poor by International Cricket Council for not being able to provide a balance between bat and ball.
"I won't go too much into it. Match referee is entitled to share his opinion. It doesn't really matter if I agree with his reading or not. Doesn't matter what I think. But sometimes with WTC points at stake, you tend to play on wickets that produce results," Dravid said in a media interaction before the Test.
India have already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but they need a win in the final Test of the series to cement their spot against Australia in WTC final. If they don’t beat Australia in Ahmedabad Test, their WTC final chances will depend on the outcome of two-Test series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
While out-of-form KL Rahul was replaced by Gill for Indore Test, Ishan Kishan may make his Test debut and replace wicketkeeper-batter Srikar Bharat who has managed to score just 57 runs from five innings. Meanwhile, there is a big question mark over the nature of Ahmedabad Test pitch.
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