Pink ball points: Fit-again Gill gets quality match time, Rohit keeps people guessing
Shubman Gill dispelled all doubts about his thumb injury with a stylish fifty even as skipper Rohit Sharma kept cards close to his chest by coming in at No. 4 in India's curtailed pink-ball warm-up game against Prime Minister's XI here on Sunday.
The visitors won the match by six wickets.
It, however, remains to be seen if the Indian captain would come out to open in the second Test against Australia, starting on Friday in Adelaide.
It was a 46-overs-a-side affair, which India won by chasing down an easy target of 241 in 42.5 overs, but they carried on batting till the end of the final over.
For Australia, Test hopeful Sam Konstas' 107 off 97 balls went in vain.
The Indian team management was tactical in its choices as Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah decided on facing each other at the nets rather than providing data to the Aussie think-tank.
Interestingly, Ravichandran Ashwin, who didn't play the Perth Test, was seen at the nets, mostly bowling to Kohli. Ashwin had a four-wicket haul in the last pink-ball Test in Adelaide in 2020-21.
Ravindra Jadeja, however, got a few overs and also batted for some time.
Rohit persisted with the opening combination of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, dropping himself down to number four. However, his own game time was limited to 11 deliveries as he edged one to the slips under the night lights.
The biggest piece of news for India was Gill's batting. A cracking square cut first up off seamer Mahli Beardman indicated that his fractured left thumb has completely healed and he is ready to play the Adelaide game.
He looked pretty comfortable against Scott Boland, whom he faced during his second spell.
Gill punished the pacers and spinners alike with seven boundaries before he retired after facing 62 balls.
Jaiswal (45 off 59 balls) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (42 off 32 balls), both players with virtually no experience of facing the pink ball at domestic level, threw their bats around and got some runs.
Rishabh Pant also didn't come out to bat, much to the disappointment of the 1,000-odd Indian fans present at the Manuka Oval.
Harshit shows big heart
Harshit Rana has already earned the vote of confidence from the team management with an impressive Test debut at Perth and picked four wickets here to strengthen his credentials as a wicket-taking bowler.
Still very raw at the international level, Harshit's inexperience became his undoing during the first three overs as he wasn't able to hit the right length with the pink ball.
But then he went round the wicket against a set southpaw Jack Clayton (40) and bowled a quick delivery that came in with the angle as the batter played inside the line.
Within a space of a delivery, he came over the wicket to right-hander Ollie Davis (0) and a fullish ball had him playing all over.
In his next over, he bowled two different types of bouncers -- the one to skipper Jack Edwards climbed steeply as he went for a pull while the next one to Sam Harper was aimed at rib cage and forced the batter to go for a swivel pull. Both catches landed safely inside Prasidh Krishna's palms.
Akash Deep (2/58) bowled a few wicket-taking deliveries but didn't look as menacing as Harshit when the latter bowled the 'heavy ball'. In all, India made the best use of the limited practice opportunity.
Brief scores: Australia PM XI 240 in 43.2 over (Sam Konstas 107, Hanno Jacobs 61, Jack Clayton 40, Harshit Rana 4/44, Akash Deep 2/58).
India 257 for 5 in 46 overs (Shubman Gill retd 50 no, KL Rahul retd 27 no, Yashasvi Jaiswal 45, Nitish Kumar Reddy 42, Ravindra Jadeja 27, Washington Sundar 42 no).
