We are not even a night older after India’s crushing Test series loss to New Zealand and the management has already started working towards the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). Yes! According to the Indian Express, KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel will be travelling to Australia to join the India A team for their second practice match in Melbourne.
KL Rahul & Dhruv Jurel to get much-needed match practice
Team India endured were humbled by a resurgent New Zealand side as the Kiwis recorded a first-ever 0-3 win in India. Across all three Tests, India fielded their first-choice players, with both KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel missing out. While Rahul played the Bengaluru Test, Jurel’s only contribution came when he stood behind the wickets after Rishabh Pant’s knees gave out in the first Test.
With not much match practice, both Rahul and Jurel will travel to Australia. Both the keeper-batters will fly on Tuesday morning (November 5) to be available for the second four-day game, scheduled to take place in Melbourne from November 07. Albeit panic, this is a great decision by BCCI as both Rahul and Jurel could play a crucial role in the high-octane BGT series. The duo might be fight for that number six spot after Sarfaraz Khan’s poor outing in the last two Tests against New Zealand.
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Rohit Sharma’s India to fly in two batches to Australia
The report also claims that the Indian team will fly to Australia in two batches. While KL Rahul and Jurel will be flying on Tuesday, we are yet to hear from the management about the departure of the other players. Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, is unlikely to feature in the first Test in Perth that starts on November 22.
Apart from this, the previously scheduled India vs India A fixture has been cancelled already. Instead the Indian squad will opt for practice session on the centre wicket match simulation from November 15 to 17 (presumably). This will be a change from the last two times India arrived in Australia for BGT. They played a 3-day match against Australia A in 2020-21 and a 4-day match against Cricket Australia XI in 2018-19. Aiming for a hat-trick of series wins Down Under, the preparations for the tour don’t seem to be going right. Having already suffered a historic loss at home, no game time in Australia doesn’t really inspire much confidence.
India’s squad for the BGT 2024-25
Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
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