Adelaide, Dec 11: Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and skipper Rohit Sharma were among the players to hit the nets in Adelaide ahead of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, starting December 14 in Brisbane.In a video shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on X, youngsters Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar and Rishabh Pant were also seen honing their batting skills against Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Akash Deep, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja at the nets.
As the focus gets back to the red ball, the visitors will look to forget the misery of Adelaide as they faced a massive 10-wicket defeat in the pink-ball Test.
Indian batters looked out of touch at Adelaide Oval as they were wrapped for 180 & 175 in the match, leading to Australia’s emphatic comeback in the series following their 295-run loss in Perth.
For India, Nitish Kumar Reddy was the top-scorer across both innings with identical scores of 42 in each essay. In Brisbane, the onus will shift on senior batters, especially Kohli and Rohit, along with Gill and Pant to score runs on the board to keep the hopes of the World Test Championship (WTC) final alive.
In the bowling department, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah didn’t get the desired support from Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana in Adelaide to get through Australia’s middle order as Travis Head’s excellent 140 guided them to 337 in the first innings.
On the other hand, Australian pacers led by captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland delivered fire with the pink ball and went on to take India’s all 20 wickets in the match. Starc clinched eight wickets while Cummins and Boland got seven and five scalps, respectively.
With the series levelled at 1-1, India will look to bounce back strong to gain the lead and break Australia’s momentum on home soil.