KL Rahul batted in the nets on Sunday, allaying concerns over his fitness, indicating that he is ready to open the innings in the first Test against Australia as Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is away with his newborn baby. After spending time, he will join the team in Adelaide itself.
In the absence of Rohit, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will lead the team. In the ‘intra-squad’ (practicing by dividing Indian players into two teams) practice match at the WACA ground, Rahul hit the ball of fast bowler Prasidh Krishna on his elbow while batting on Friday. After being hit, he left the field for medical treatment.
The first match of the five-Test series of Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia will start from November 22 at Optus Stadium while the second Test will be held in Adelaide from December 6.
There is every possibility that the team management will start the innings with the pair of Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. On Sunday, the 32-year-old Rahul batted without any problems and participated in all kinds of ‘drills’ during the three-hour net session and also batted for a long time.
In a video shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on ‘X’, Rahul said, “I was injured on the first day of the game. Today I am feeling good. Getting ready for the first match. It’s good that I could come here early and adapt to the conditions.
He said, “Yes, I have got a lot of time to prepare for this series and I am excited and ready for it.”
In fact, during the press conference before leaving from Mumbai, head coach Gautam Gambhir had also hinted at making Rahul bat in the upper order in case Rohit is out of the initial Test.
Team physiotherapist Kamlesh Jain said that Rahul is fine after treatment. “The most important thing for us was to make sure he didn’t have any fractures,” Jain said in the video. It has been 48 hours since the injury and he is doing fine after treatment. Now he is ready to play.
Associate physio Yogesh Parmar said that the treatment was to control the pain. He said, “I took him for ‘X-ray’ and scans and based on the reports I was confident that he would be fine. ,
“It was a matter of controlling the pain and giving him confidence,” he said. From medical point of view he is absolutely fine. ,
The Indian team has completed training at the WACA ground and the players will go to the Optus Stadium for match ‘drills’ from Tuesday. Monday is a day of rest. Meanwhile, the Indian team management has decided to keep top-order batsman Devdutt Padikkal in Australia as a batting ‘back-up’.
Devdutt was recently part of the India A team that played two four-day matches against their Australian counterpart.
This left-handed batsman has recently been selected in the Karnataka team for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He played innings of 36, 88, 26 and one run on the ‘A’ tour.
Three fast bowlers Mukesh Kumar, Khalil Ahmed and Navdeep Saini were part of the India A team. Saini played in Sydney and Brisbane during the last Australian tour and has played only two matches in the traditional format so far.
A source close to the development said, “It is about being familiar with Australian conditions as these players have played here recently. Devdutt (24 years) made his Test debut against England in Dharamsala earlier this year and scored 65 runs while batting at number four. (Language)
