Pink-ball practice match points: Fit again Shubman Gill gets quality match time, Rohit Sharma keeps people guessing

Shubman Gill dispelled all doubts about his thumb injury with a stylish half-century, while skipper Rohit Sharma helped the cards by coming in at No. 4 in India's brief pink-ball practice game against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra on Sunday. Kept near the chest. The visiting team won the match by six wickets. However, it remains to be seen whether the Indian captain will open the batting in the second Test against Australia starting on Friday in Adelaide. It was a 46-over affair, which India won while chasing an easy target of 241 runs in 42.5 overs, but they continued to bat till the end of the last over.

For Australia, Test team contender Sam Konstas' inning of 107 runs in 97 balls went in vain.

The Indian team management was smart in its choices as Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah decided to face each other in the nets instead of providing data to the Australian think-tank.

Interestingly, Ravichandran Ashwin, who did not play the Perth Test, was seen bowling mostly to Kohli in the nets. Ashwin took four wickets in the last pink-ball Test in Adelaide in 2020-21.

However, Ravindra Jadeja got a few overs and batted for some time.

Rohit retained the opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul and dropped himself to number four. However, his own playing time was limited to 11 balls as he bowled one ball to the slips under night lights.

The biggest news for India was Gill's batting. A square cut off fast bowler Mahali Beardman indicated that her broken left thumb has fully healed and she is ready to play the Adelaide match.

He looked quite comfortable against Scott Boland, whom he faced during his second spell.

Gill hit seven fours off fast bowlers and spinners alike before retiring after facing 62 balls.

Jaiswal (45 off 59 balls) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (42 off 32 balls), both players with almost no experience of facing the pink ball at the domestic level, threw their bats and scored some runs.

Rishabh Pant also did not come out to bat, much to the disappointment of the approximately 1000 Indian fans present at the Manuka Oval.

Joyful shows big heart

Harshit Rana has already earned the team management's vote of confidence with a brilliant Test debut in Perth and has also taken four wickets here to cement his credentials as a wicket-taker.

Still very raw at the international level, Harshit's inexperience became his disadvantage during the first three overs as he was unable to bowl the right length with the pink ball.

But then he went round the wicket against set southpaw Jack Clayton (40) and bowled a fast ball that came at an angle as the batsman played inside the line.

Within a few deliveries, he was caught over the wicket by right-hander Ollie Davis (0) and a fullish ball forced him to bowl all over.

In his next over, he bowled two different types of bouncers – one to captain Jack Edwards, which rose sharply as he went for the pull, while Sam Harper's next over targeted the rib cage and gave the batsman a Forced to go for the swivel bridge. , Both the catches fell safely into the palms of the famous Krishna.

Akash Deep (2/58) bowled some wicket-taking balls, but did not look as dangerous when Harshit bowled the 'heavy ball'. Overall, India made the best use of the limited practice opportunity.