(Cricket news) The objective of the match for both the teams was always going to be to get into the rhythm. India came into the game after comprehensively losing a warm up match against Western Australia. The men in blue have to get used to these conditions before their massive opening game against Pakistan. The Gabba in particular is a massive ground and it was a good practice for both sides. Rishabh Pant and Deepak Hooda didn't take part in the game which is an inclination of what line-up India might go with. Australia on the other hand didn't play David Warner, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa. Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bowl first.
KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma opened the batting as India even in a practice game played aggressively as they have done in the past year. Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav both got quickfire half centuries. The big surprise was that despite losing 7 wickets India did not send Deepak Hooda and Rishabh Pant out to bat. It looks very unlikely that Pant gets a place in the side for the match against Pakistan unless there is an availability issue with another middle order batter. Rahul getting back into his groove is incredible news for India. India's top 4 look set and are in good form. The batters were surprised a few times by the extra bounce off the surface. India finished with a score of 186/7 in 20 overs. Kane Richardson was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up 4/30 in his 4 overs.
The Australian run chase was anchored by skipper Aaron Finch who scored 79 off 53 balls. Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell played small cameos and Australia looked comfortable for most of the innings. Indian bowlers pulled things back at the death which is incredible news as death bowling was one thing which they were struggling with. Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up 2 wickets while Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh got a scalp each. Mohammed Shami who has just about recovered from Covid didn't take the field until he bowled the 20th over. Shami ended up taking up 4 wickets in 4 balls and that too in incredible fashion. The 1st one was a ridiculous one handed catch by Virat Kohli on the edge of the long on boundary. The 2nd one was a run out while the last two were brutal yorkers.
The biggest takeaway is that Shami is back and he looks fully fit. The Rhythm is still there despite not playing for a long time and he is going to be the key bowler for India. The only question is who out of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh will miss out. Harshal bowled a really good 19th over where he dismissed the well set Finch. Virat Kohli was a live wire on field. He inflicted an incredible runout with a diving direct hit before taking an unbelievable one handed catch on the long on boundary rope. The match was a big success for India and they will be looking to continue the same against New Zealand on Wednesday.
Also read: IPL teams need to submit list of retained players by Nov 15
