Canberra: Unrelenting rain forced the abandonment of the first-day’s play of the two-day practice match between India and Prime Minister’s XI here on Saturday, robbing Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill of some much-needed Pink ball game time ahead of the day-night second Test against Australia at Adelaide.
The teams have agreed to play a 50-over-a-side match on Sunday at the Manuka Oval, weather permitting.
However, the day might have come as a dampener for captain Rohit, who had skipped the first Test at Perth to welcome a baby boy into his family, ahead of the Pink Ball Test, starting on December 6.
Though he has had a couple of extensive net sessions with Pink Ball, facing some quality bowlers in a real-match situation holds a different value, considering India’s last day-night Test was against Sri Lanka in March 2022 in Bengaluru.
Gill had to sit out of the first Test because of a finger injury and the top-order batter is expected to walk back into the eleven.
Before that, Gill, who also had a good hit at nets on Friday, would have been hoping to enter the match zone through this side game.
Rohit and Gill are expected to replace Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel in the playing eleven for the Adelaide Test.
Now, they will pin their hope to form some early plans for the Pink ball Test on Sunday through that 50-over game.
India has so far played four pink-ball Tests. After their victory over Bangladesh (2019, Kolkata), India lost to Australia in 2020 (Adelaide) before winning against England (2021, Ahmedabad) and Sri Lanka (2022, Bengaluru) at home.
