Team India comfortable with bounce & colour

CHENNAI: Hanuma Vihari believes playing with the pink ball and getting used to bounce in Australia are the biggest takeaways for India from the two practice matches. India head to Adelaide on Monday to begin preparations for the first Test starting on December 17. It is a day/night affair. Though there was victory insight at the Sydney Cricket Ground against Australia A, Indians didn't really push themselves on Sunday as they appeared more keen on giving Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami short spells. The two bowled 13 overs each.

Australia A batsmen Ben McDermott and Jack Wildermuth thwarted India's hopes with well-made centuries, but that shouldn't dent the visitors' confidence going into the first Test. For starters, if they were thinking of playing four pacers in Adelaide — they didn't field a spinner at SCG — they would have got a reality check. Though they ran through Australia A in the first innings under lights, on Sunday the story was different. After making early inroads through Shami and Mohammed Siraj, the bowlers didn't make much impact once the ball got old. At times the attack looked one-dimensional, which means India might still play Ravichandran Ashwin at the Adelaide Oval, which has hosted four day/night Tests. Nathan Lyon is the lone spinner to take five wickets in an innings in those, but he has 18 wickets.

From a batting point of view, Indians would go into the Adelaide Test more accustomed to the pink ball, having played three days of good cricket, which exposed them to batting under lights and bowling with an old ball. “Getting practice with the pink ball just before the day-night Test is ideal for us. I think we played against a decent opposition in both games. The challenge with the pink ball is during the twilight and when the floodlights are on. It does a little bit in the air and off the wicket. That is the challenge we have realised as a team. I hope not only me, but all the batsmen will take it as a challenge going into Adelaide, and we will make sure as a batting group we put up a good total,” Vihari said.

The Indians, who landed in Sydney exactly a month back and started training from the fourth day, would have got used to the bounce that touring teams usually struggle to adjust to. In fact, barring Prithvi Shaw, all batsmen spent considerable time in the middle. Ajinkya Rahane, Vihari and Rishabh Pant scored centuries.

“We as Indians tend to play at every ball because of the bounce back home. But we are coping with the extra bounce pretty well. The first two practice games, if you see, we left the ball very well, and we are trying to acclimatise with conditions. Coming into the first Test, we are very well equipped with the pace and the bounce of the wickets. I am pretty sure we will do well.” Vihari added.