India’s limited preparation for the day-night Test in Adelaide has been severely curtailed with wet weather washing out the first of two days against the Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka Oval.
The game will change to a 50-overs-a-side game on Sunday, weather permitting.
The visitors were hoping to use the pink-ball game for captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill to get match practice before the second Test, while Scott Boland, the presumptive replacement for the injured Josh Hazlewood, could also use the run.
Rohit stayed with his family for the birth of his child and missed India’s 295-run victory in the first Test in Perth, while Gill was ruled out with a broken thumb suffered during catching practice earlier in the tour.
India has played only four pink-ball Tests, the last in March 2022, before the match at Adelaide Oval starts on Friday.
Boland is in the Test squad but will remain with the PM’s XI, while Sean Abbott and Brendan Doggett have been added as bowling back-up, and Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster is a chance for a debut with Mitch Marsh under a fitness cloud.
Boland has not played a Test since the third game of the 2023 Ashes series in England, with the 35-year-old admitting he feared his Test career could be over after missing selection last summer.
“I probably expected to play at some stage last summer with seven Tests because of the New Zealand tour as well,” Boland said during the rain delay in Canberra.
“Obviously with those guys [Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc] being so resilient, they don’t miss too many and no-one wants to give up their spot at any stage.
“They were so dominant last summer, they weren’t bowling a heap of overs. We were able to win most of those games, so I probably thought maybe the opportunity had passed.
“I’ve worked really hard during the off-season to get my body in a spot where I’m confident that if I get another chance, I’ll be able to perform for Australia again.”
Indian selectors also have decisions to make that would be made easier with a closer look at a few contenders.
The tourists handed debuts to all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and fast bowler Harshit Rana in the first Test, with Washington Sundar the only spinner.
Sundar took two wickets in the second innings of India’s 295-run win at Perth Stadium but faces a challenge from veterans Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, boasting a combined 855 Test wickets between them.
Akash Deep is another seam bowling option, while the match in Canberra was the last chance for Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal to show enough to avoid getting dropped.
It is expected that they will be the two batters to make way for Rohit and Gill, with opener KL Rahul doing enough to keep his spot thanks to 103 runs in the opening Test.
Prime Minister’s XI squad: Jack Edwards (c), Charlie Anderson, Mahli Beardman, Scott Boland, Jack Clayton, Aidan O’Connor, Ollie Davies, Jayden Goodwin, Sam Harper, Hanno Jacobs, Sam Konstas, Lloyd Pope, Matthew Renshaw, Jem Ryan
India touring squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar
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