AUSTRALIA A VS INDIA A, FIRST PRACTICE MATCH
India, like Australia, will be concerned about the form of its first teams © Getty
“Aur thode din sun na patroga abhi Vihari(You’ll have to hear about this for a few days, Vihari.) “Hanuma Vihari’s response to the mischief of one of the trainers was simply to shake his head and smile sheepishly. The event that Vihari was being reprimanded for had occurred earlier in The second session of the second day of India’s warm-up game at Drummoyne Oval, was when he dropped a fairly easy catch with Cameron Green’s bat on the slip.
The imposing Western Australian, of course, went on to make the century with which he has now entered the probable eleven of all for the Adelaide test. It is not to say that he would not have done it without Vihari’s involuntary help. But it certainly helped him along the way. To the extent that India now has to not only find out, but witness Green and his exploits for a few more days. Starting two days from now at SCG when the 21-year-old will once again face the visitors in the pink ball practice match.
Green’s century coupled with Joe Burns’ double flops and Will Pucovski’s unfortunate blow to the head may have left Australians with more questions than answers. It wasn’t much different for the Indians either, as they greeted a handful of their fans outside the doors of the Drummoyne Oval before getting on the bus on Tuesday (December 8) night.
Yes, they had found out that Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are even better suited to deal with bouncing and stitching motion in an Australian field. Coupled with the fact that R. Ashwin is still as smart as ever, cap or off, and he also seems to be in the kind of pace that makes him very dangerous regardless of the pitch or conditions. That Umesh Yadav now seems to have found the consistency and control to go with her impressive natural skills with sewing, although it was perhaps the biggest conclusion to the three-day adventure for the Indians.
However, as with the hosts, what India found out regarding their first few matches would have been a bit unnerving. If Joe Burns doesn’t seem to know where his next compelling run will come from, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill didn’t seem too sure either. After scoring a zero apiece in the first inning, the two played some attractive shots at least on their second digs, but still looked too flashy with their hitting game, which eventually led to their layoffs as well, to fill the Indian camp with trust. Later, the two were seen in an argument with each other about how difficult it is on Australian pitches with some flavor and threat in them simply forcing the ball back when they are playing away from their bodies. The consensus was that it’s not easy to get away with going home on the more evenly paced Indian pitches they’ve grown up on. The conversation was later joined by hitting coach Vikram Rathour, who seemed to agree with what Drummoyne had learned. Hopefully Shaw will be the one to open alongside Mayank Agarwal for at least the first two tests. But how he reacted to Green’s extra jump off the field will be of concern to the visitors, even if it’s too early in the tour to draw conclusions. Gill is touted as one of the most likely to replace Virat Kohli at No.4 once he leaves Adelaide. But he will have to do much more than throw his bat in a wide delivery as he did Tuesday to convince team management that he is indeed ready for that test debut under these conditions. Meanwhile, Agarwal was also tested, but by a Jasprit Bumrah in the networks.
Vihari looked solid in both innings and, in addition to spending a lot of time chatting with Pujara on the sidelines, he also displayed the same kind of temperament as his senior partner. He also played a couple of pretty attractive drives every time the ball was thrown in his half and he scored at a good pace while still around. It took two very good installments of Michael Neser to get rid of both.
He eventually drew down his 20-year-old backup fast pitcher, Kartik Tyagi, to help save the day for the Indians by taking on a loaded James Pattinson and a wicket-taking Mark Steketee. But as disappointing as the mid-order collapse would have been, seeing Wriddhiman Saha take on the Australian fast men as he handled the attack to keep Tyagi out of harm’s way would have been a very promising sign. The jury is still out on whether India will enter their best goalkeeper on the tour, who might be the ideal choice, or their young dynamo goalkeeper, who has scored a century earlier on Australian soil, for the opening test. Rishabh Pant was not part of the game XI here due to a slight neck strain, but spent almost 20-30 minutes after the day’s game working on his fitness. If Saha can produce the kind of counterattack he did Wednesday on a fairly difficult field, Pant could end up on the bench for most of the test series.
Although the low scores may be cause for concern, the Indians will not be too discouraged overall from their first warm-up game. It was on a very difficult field that players on both sides admitted was too up and down for the third day of practice. match. Meanwhile, Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun, who showed up on the second day, seemed more than impressed with the form and performance of their fast bowlers, and you would think aside from who plays as the third finisher behind Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, it is not a question of selection facing India. For now, it appears that there are no options for that particular slot. And you’d think that decision should be made before India leaves Sydney and the coaching staff present at Drummoyne allows Vihari to forget and get over her misstep.
© Cricbuzz
