India’s day-night Test preparation has been hampered by rain with day one of their clash in Canberra abandoned

India will at best have a single day of match practice with the pink ball for Adelaide’s day-night Test after Saturday’s play against the Prime Minister’s XI was abandoned.

A one-day match will be played at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Sunday should the rain clear and the ground be deemed safe.

India were hoping to use the pink-ball game for captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill to get match practice before the second Test.

Prime Minister’s XI v India day two session times

 

First innings: 2.40pm-6.10pm

 

Interval: 6.10pm-6.40pm

 

Second innings: 6.40pm-10.10pm

Rohit missed India’s 295-run first Test victory in Perth because of the birth of his first child while Gill was ruled out with a broken thumb suffered during catching practice ahead of the match.

Gill had his first practice session in Canberra on Friday since returning from the injury and was pleased with the outcome.

“For the first couple of days I was quite low, a bit disappointed,” Gill told BCCI media. 

“It was my first day (training) and I just wanted to get a feel to see how the injury is reacting, if there was any jarring or soreness.

“It actually went much better than I expected and I’m very happy with that.”

India have played only four pink-ball Tests, the last in March 2022.

Scott Boland will remain with the PM’s XI despite being the likely replacement for an injured Josh Hazlewood in the second Test.

Prime Minister’s XI squad: Jack Edwards (c), Charlie Anderson, Mahli Beardman, Scott Boland, Jack Clayton, Aidan O’Connor, Ollie Davies, Jayden Goodwin, Sam Harper, Hanno Jacobs, Sam Konstas, Lloyd Pope, Matthew Renshaw, Jem Ryan

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal