Team India pacers made early impact by showing their prowess and bundling the home team on a mere total on the opening day. Indian seamers, led by Varun Aaron, dominated the proceedings and showed they are more than capable of exploiting the conditions.
Where to Watch Day 2 Practice Match Live Scores
The practice match between Cricket Australia Invitational XI vs India is scheduled for a 5:30 am IST (10:30 local and 00:00 GMT) start at Gliderol Stadium. The live score updates of the match will be available HERE, HERE and HERE.
Aaron was the wrecker-in-chief with four wickets and impressed one and all with his pace, after coming back from an injury. The Jamshedpur-born was bowling at a rate of knots and played an instrumental role in dismantling Cricket Australia XI batting lineup in Adelaide.
“I knew he was going to be pretty quick from having faced him a few years ago and he certainly followed through with that,” Opener Ryan Carters said about Aaron.
“He bowled some pretty quick bumpers and did a little bit of damage to our middle-order but I thought at times we played him well,” he added. “He was hitting the bat hard and he definitely made us fight for our runs.”
“On a fast wicket he will definitely be a handful if he plays, you could definitely expect some short stuff. He would (comparatively) be one of the quicker bowlers around Australia, and this wicket was good for the quicks.”
It was not only Aaron, who troubled the hosts, but fellow seamers Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also made the ball talk. Shami, in particular, used the short ball well and made the Aussies hop with some chin music.
“It certainly had some pace when they bowled short it was coming through well so the bouncers were pretty challenging,” he added. “But the Aussie (Test) guys do like bouncy wickets so I think, in some ways, they’ll enjoy that.”
India now have Day 2 to test their batting skills and get used to the bouncy Australian pitches. They, however, have already lost opener Shikhar Dhawan cheaply and will start with Murali Vijay, who looked solid and Cheteshwar Pujara.
India does have one more practice game to go before facing Australia in the series opener in Brisbane, but he would be looking to give his batters as much time in the middle as possible.
It is good opportunity for comeback-man Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and others to get some considerable playing time and confidence under the belt before facing the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris.
