Out of quarantine and into the fray, India’s tough tour gets underway
SYDNEY: The plans for India’s tour of Australia have been ripped up and redrawn dozens of times over the last eight months but the action finally gets underway with the first oneday international at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
It was at the same venerable ground on March 13 that Australia last hosted international men’s cricket, with the hosts beating New Zealand by 71 runs to snap a five-match losing streak in one-dayers.
The 48,000 seats were empty that day as the COVID-19 pandemic began to bite but Australia’s relative success at containing the virus means up to half of them will be occupied on Friday.
India’s squad will be raring to go after coming out of two weeks of quarantine, while Australia’s players will be reunited after preparing in two separate groups to satisfy biosecurity protocols. Virat Kohli’s tourists are the second ranked ODI side in the world and will be looking to get into their groove in the three 50-over and three Twenty20 matches that precede the fourmatch test series around the new year. “It’s important to start well in the white-ball series,” India vice-captain KL Rahul said.
“We are playing for the country after a while. We enjoy coming here and playing hard cricket.”
Skipper Kohli will return home after the first Test to attend the birth of his first child.
India have not played a onedayer since they lost a series 3-0 in New Zealand in February but the players have had plenty of opportunities to sharpen their skills in the IPL. Wicketkeeperbatsman Rishabh Pant was left out of the ODI squad and opener Rohit Sharma will miss the two short format series at least with a hamstring issue. Aaron Finch led Aust to a 2-1 series triumph in England in September and his side is likely to look pretty similar with the all-important addition of former skipper Steve Smith, who missed the 50-over matches because of concussion.
Smith and opener David Warner were also absent in the aftermath of the Newlands balltampering scandal when India won ODI and test series on their last visit but both batsmen will be in the Australia team.
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh’s absence with an ankle injury might offer an opportunity to uncapped youngsters Cameron Green and Will Pucovski, who have been in prolific form with the bat in the Sheffield Shield.
Kohli baffled
Kohli said he was kept in the dark about deputy Rohit Sharma’s hamstring injury and believes the opener should have travelled to Australia to boost his chances of playing the Test series against Tim Paine’s men.
Rohit was initially ruled out of the entire Australia tour with the injury which kept him out of four Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in the United Arab Emirates. The 33-year-old, however, returned to lead Mumbai Indians to a record fifth IPL title, prompting questions about the extent of his injury.
The Indian board subsequently added him to the Test squad, while monitoring his recovery at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, having deemed him still unfit to travel with the rest of the team to Australia. “It’s been very confusing and there’s been a lot of uncertainty ... around the situation,” Kohli said ahead of Friday’s oneday series opener in Sydney.
“After that (injury), he played in the IPL, so we all thought that he was going to be on that flight to Australia, which he wasn’t.
“So from the time that the selection meeting happened ... there’s been no information, there’s been a lack of clarity. And we’ve been playing the waiting game on this issue.”