Shubman Gill dispelled all doubts about his thumb injury with a stylish fifty even as skipper Rohit Sharma kept cards close to his chest by coming in at No. 4 in India’s curtailed pink-ball warm-up game against Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra on Sunday. The visitors won the match by six wickets. It, however, remains to be seen if the Indian captain would come out to open in the second Test against Australia, starting Friday in Adelaide. It was a 46-overs-a-side affair, which India won by chasing down an easy target of 241 in 42.5 overs, but they carried on batting till the end of the final over.

For Australia, Test hopeful Sam Konstas‘ 107 off 97 balls went in vain.

The Indian team management was tactical in its choices as Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah decided on facing each other at the nets rather than providing data to the Aussie think-tank.

Interestingly, Ravichandran Ashwin, who didn’t play the Perth Test, was seen at the nets, mostly bowling to Kohli. Ashwin had a four-wicket haul in the last Pink-ball Test in Adelaide in 2020-21.

Ravindra Jadeja, however, got a few overs and also batted for some time.

Rohit persisted with the opening combination of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, dropping himself down to number four. However, his own game time was limited to 11 deliveries as he edged one to the slips under the night lights.

The biggest piece of news for India was Gill’s batting. A cracking square cut first up off seamer Mahli Beardman indicated that his fractured left thumb has completely healed and he is ready to play the Adelaide game.

He looked pretty comfortable against Scott Boland, whom he faced during his second spell.

Gill punished the pacers and spinners alike with seven boundaries before he retired after facing 62 balls.

Jaiswal (45 off 59 balls) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (42 off 32 balls), both players with virtually no experience of facing the pink ball at domestic level, threw their bats around and got some runs.

Rishabh Pant also didn’t come out to bat, much to the disappointment of the 1000-odd Indian fans present at the Manuka Oval.

Harshit shows big heart

Harshit Rana has already earned the vote of confidence from the team management with an impressive Test debut at Perth and picked four wickets here to strengthen his credentials as a wicket-taking bowler.

Still very raw at the international level, Harshit’s inexperience became his undoing during the first three overs as he wasn’t able to hit the right length with the pink ball.

But then he went round the wicket against a set southpaw Jack Clayton (40) and bowled a quick delivery that came in with the angle as the batter played inside the line.

Within a space of a delivery, he came over the wicket to right-hander Ollie Davis (0) and a fullish ball had him playing all over.

In his next over, he bowled two different types of bouncers — the one to skipper Jack Edwards climbed steeply as he went for a pull while the next one to Sam Harper was aimed at rib cage and forced the batter to go for a swivel pull. Both catches landed safely inside Prasidh Krishna‘s palms.

Akash Deep (2/58) bowled a few wicket-taking deliveries but didn’t look as menacing as Harshit when the latter bowled the ‘heavy ball’. In all, India made the best use of the limited practice opportunity.

India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate acknowledged the prospect of handing chances to youngsters Harshit Rana, Tilak Varma and others to prove their mettle in the final game of the T20I series against Bangladesh in Hyderabad. The first two T20Is saw two new faces; Delhi-tearaway Mayank Yadav and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy dazzling around in national colours. While Mayank had his charm with the new ball, Nitish was charismatic with his elegant timing of the shot and consistency with the ball.

With the series done and dusted, India will step into the stadium for the third T20I to complete a series sweep over the Tigers.

With the squad consisting of young brimming talents, Ryan ten Doeschate dropped a subtle hint about India trying new faces in the final T20I.

“Yeah, that was always the plan. Obviously, there’s nice depth in the squad, and a lot of guys have got IPL experience. We try to expose as many guys as we can to international experience with what we’ve got coming up. So someone like Harshit Rana we’re keen to give a game to. Obviously, Tilak came into the squad a bit later,” he said in the pre-match press conference on the eve of the final T20I against Bangladesh.

“Jitesh is there as well, but we want to give Sanju another chance. So there are options, and certainly the plan originally was to win the series, get the series won and then try a few new faces for the last game,” Ryan added.

Since the era of Gautam Gambhir dawned on Indian cricket, experimentation with familiar and new faces has become a constant theme, especially in the shortest format of cricket.

However, Ryan emphasised that opportunities are not given but earned by the new played under the new regime that has been soaring to new heights.

“I mean, the first thing I’ll say is we don’t give opportunities. The guys earn opportunities. Someone like Nitish, an emerging player of the IPL last year, ‘s impressed us with the work he’s done, and that goes for everyone who comes into these squads. They’re very carefully selected,” he added.

After the conclusion of the Bangladesh series, India will have more pressing matters to attend to. India will immediately shift its focus from white-ball cricket to Test format as they prepare to host New Zealand for three Tests, beginning on October 16.

The Rohit Sharma-led side will travel to Australia next month for the highly anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy, which will last till early January.

India will then have almost a month to fine-tune its squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to begin in Pakistan. Following the marquee event, a possible spot in the final of the ICC World Test Championship could be awaiting the Rohit Sharma-led side at the Lord’s.

The WTC final will be followed by a gruelling challenge in which India will play five Tests in England.

With a jam-packed schedule, Ryan asserted that the focus of the Indian team is to build a pool of players who are prepared for the challenge that lies ahead of them.

“100 per cent. I think it’s shown in the way we’ve played. The Test match in Kanpur was a great example. We’re trying to push the limits of what we can do as a team. We’ve obviously got the quality to do it. And then it’s about giving the players the belief to do it in a safe space, to know that if it’s not going to go right, it’s also okay,” he said.

“The message has been pretty consistent with that. We want guys to expand their own games. We want to move cricket forward like it is going with the times. And we want to be prepared for the big crunch months that are coming up in the next 18 months,” Ryan remarked.