Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill looked in good touch at the WACA in Perth during the match simulation against India A on Friday ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). However, KL Rahul survived an injury scare when he was struck on the elbow by a rising delivery off Prasidh Krishna. He was immediately taken off the field as a precautionary measure.
Having reached Perth earlier in the week, the Indian players had two full days of training before the match simulation. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rahul opened for India. While Rahul went off after being hit, Jaiswal was undone by a moving delivery for just 15 as the left-hander edged at the slips.
Kohli, who has struggled to get going against Bangladesh and New Zealand, also managed just 15 before Mukesh Kumar dismissed the former India captain in the first innings. Interestingly, Kohli straightaway headed to the nets at the WACA and faced throwdowns for half and hour.
During his stay at the crease, Kohli played a couple of dreamy cover drives with a superb timing and placement. In fact, his poke off Mukesh Kumar at the second slip caught everyone’s attention.
However, the trio Kohli, Dhruv Jurel and Gill were caught edging behind in the first innings. In the second innings, Gill and Jaiswal looked a lot better with the former scoring in excess of 40 runs. In fact, Jaiswal’s ramp shot against Navdeep Saini was a treat to watch.
Rishabh Pant struggles against short balls
As far as Rahul is concerned, he didn’t bat in the second innings. However, the India batter looked in comfort later on the day as he was moving his elbow without a bandage.
On the other hand, Rishabh Pant was clean bowled twice on the day and also struggled against short deliveries. Notably, the pitch at the WACA wasn’t easy to bat on. It was two paced and the bounce was up and down. For some of the Indian batters, the strip looked like a good surface to bat on.
