As the day of 22nd November is coming closer, Team India’s preparations in Australia are also gaining momentum. Team India, which has gone on Australia tour for the five-Test series, is present in Perth for the last 6 days, where the first match of Border-Galskar Trophy will be played between India and Australia. Right here in Perth, Team India is doing a special kind of practice and Sunday 17th November is the last day of this special practice. In such a situation, once again the eyes will be on players like Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant. There is also a question that after this practice, what will Team India do next and where will it go?
Team India reached Perth in different batches on 10 and 11 November. Players like Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah reached Perth alone at different times, while players like KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel were already in Australia with India A. After reaching Perth, Team India started its practice from Tuesday itself. The Indian team was practicing in the nets of the WACA stadium here, after which the special practice match of Team India started on Friday 15th November at the WACA ground, which is about to end now.
How has been the practice session so far?
The Indian team had earlier scheduled an intra-squad practice match with India A for this series but it was later cancelled. Instead, Team India is practicing match simulation. That is, they are practicing by creating conditions like a test match, in which Team India is on one side and India A is on the other side. On the first day of this simulation, Team India’s star batsmen Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill failed miserably. All of them hit some good shots but almost everyone was troubled by the fast pitch of WACA, which had a lot of bounce and everyone kept getting out behind the wicket.
WACA
Highlights from Day 1 of #TeamIndia‘s Match Simulation in Perth
WATCH
#AUSvINDhttps://t.co/bNirYD2scC
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 16, 2024
However, when they came out to bat for the second time in the day, Kohli and Pant definitely scored some runs. Whereas KL Rahul got injured on the very first day and did not participate in practice. On the second day on Saturday, India A batsmen batted, in which Rituraj Gaikwad impressed a lot. India A captain Gaikwad is not a part of the Test series but on the second day Shubman Gill suffered a thumb injury, due to which he has been ruled out of the Perth Test. In such a situation, Gaikwad has staked his claim with strong batting. According to reports, Ruturaj hit fours and sixes on bowlers like Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshit Rana and looked comfortable on balls outside the off stump.
What will Team India do after this?
This was the situation for two days but we will keep an eye on what happens on the third day i.e. Sunday 17th November. This is because this is Team India’s last day at WACA. After this Team India will leave from here. Now the question is where will the Indian team go? So the thing is that Team India will only change its practice base but will not move out of Perth. Actually, Team India will start the nets session from Tuesday 19th November at Perth Stadium (Optus Stadium), where the Test match is to start from 22nd November. That means, for the first time on November 19, Team India will get to taste the ground where its mission will begin. Team India will practice from 19th to 21st November and then the Border-Gavaskar Trophy competition will start from 22nd.
