India captain Virat Kohli withdrew from the day-night warm-up match against Australia A on Friday, deciding to give his body some rest after having played in all previous limited games. India won the toss and chose to hit in the three-day game that began in Sydney on Friday. With Kohli out of the pink ball tour match, seasoned Ajinkya Rahane leads the team at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The game is more of a simulation ahead of the opening of the Day-Night Test series, which will be played with a pink ball from December 17-21 in Adelaide.
The Indians on tour don’t have enough experience facing the pink ball in top-notch cricket, having only played one such event against Bangladesh last year.
However, India won that game, held at Eden Gardens, by a beautiful margin of innings and 46 runs.
Australia has played quite a few nightly pink ball games in recent years.
After Adelaide, the games will be played in Melbourne (December 26-30), Sydney and Brisbane in January.
Four members of Australia’s test team are playing in the tour game: starting hitter Joe Burns, off-roader Cameron Green, bowler Sean Abbott and leg thrower Mitchell Swepson.
India is entering the game having won the T20I series 2-1 following a loss at the ODI rubber by a similar margin.
Playing XI:
Promoted
India: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia A: Joe Burns, Marcus Harris, Nic Maddinson, Ben McDermott, Cameron Green, Jack Wildermuth, Alex Carey (captain), Sean Abbott, Will Sutherland, Mitch Swepson, Harry Conway.
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