India vs Australia Prime Minister's XI: Rohit, Gill return as India's opening combination in focus on Day 2 of practice match

Regular skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill returned as Team India won the toss and opted to field in their two-day Day-Night practice match against Australia Prime Minister’s XI at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Sunday. The opening day on Saturday had been washed out due to rain without a ball being bowled. With just a day left to be played in the fixture, the match has been reduced to 46 overs per side.

At the time of writing this report, the Prime Minister’s XI were 33/2 in 10.2 overs, with Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj having taken a wicket each. India missed Shubman Gill in the first Test against Australia in Perth after the 25-year-old had sustained a thumb injury. Rohit, on the other hand, skipped the series opener following the birth of his second child.

KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were India’s openers in Perth, and the duo proved to be game-changers in the second innings after they forged a 201-run stand for the first wicket. Jaiswal amassed 161 runs whereas Rahul played a knock of 77.

With the second Test in Adelaide being a pink ball affair and starting in less than a week’s time (6 December), this match will provide some game time for both Rohit and Gill as India look to finalise their opening combination.

India had won the first Test against Australia in Perth by 295 runs and taken a 1-0 lead in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. India were led by pacer Jasprit Bumrah in Rohit’s absence . After India were bundled out for 150 in the first innings, the visitors scripted a remarkable comeback with Bumrah leading from the front with a five-fer in Australia’s first innings reply.

Australia were all out for 104 in the first innings and India rode on centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli , as well as a fifty from KL Rahul in the second innings to declare at a total of 487/6. Australia were then set a target of 534, but were all out for 238 with Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj sharing six wickets between them.

India vs Australia Prime Minister’s XI squads

India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill,  Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal.

Australia Prime Minister’s XI: Jack Edwards (Captain), Jack Clayton, Oliver Davies, Matt Renshaw, Jayden Goodwin, Sam Harper, Charlie Anderson, Sam Konstas, Scott Boland, Lloyd Pope, Mahli Beardman, Hanno Jacobs, Aidan O Connor, Jem Ryan, Jack Nisbet