Australian squad hits the nets at PCA

Deepankar Sharda

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Mohali, September 17

A day after landing in India, the Australian cricket team hit the nets at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium here this evening. The Oz squad sweat it out hard at the match venue three days before facing India in the opening T20 tie of the three-match series of the tour.

Indian team reaches city

Indian cricket team reached Chandigarh on Saturday. While few players reached here in the morning, skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, who has a marvellous record, including playing his 100th Test match in March this year, in Mohali, Hardik Pandya, Surya Kumar Yadav and others arrived in the evening. The Indian squad is scheduled to attend its first practice session here on Sunday afternoon.

Struggle for tickets continues

Indian cricket team reached Chandigarh on Saturday. While few players reached here in the morning, skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, who has a marvellous performance record, including playing his 100th Test match in March this year, in Mohali, Hardik Pandya, Surya Kumar Yadav and others arrived in the evening. The Indian squad is scheduled to attend its first practice session here on Sunday afternoon.

Australia’s T20 records in Mohali

Played: 2 matches

Won: 1; Lost: 1

Highest Totals: 193/4 against Pakistan in 2016 and 160/6 against India in 2016

The T20 match between India and Australia is scheduled to be held in the evening on September 20.

The entire Australian team spent nearly four hours, starting from 4.30 pm, at the stadium for batting, bowling, fielding and catching practice and conditioning training. Aussie batsmen preferred fast net bowlers perhaps to prepare against India’s fearsome pace battery led by Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

Smith first to attend the nets

Steve Smith, whose highest score in this ground is 61 (not out) (scored against Pakistan in 2016), was the first one to attend the net’s session. One of the most experienced players of the side, Smith was caught facing pacers most of the time he spent on nets. Besides facing the local net bowlers, Pat Cummings was the main bowler for Smith on Saturday evening.

All eyes on David

While the Australian team was practicing at nets, all eyes were on Timothy Hays David, known as Tim David, superstar from the T20 League, who is expected to make his international debut against India. The middle-order batsman is known for his wonderworks in T20 leagues across the world. David, who is 6.5ft tall, has caught many eyes during the recent season of the IPL where he scored 186 runs in eight matches for Mumbai Indians. Even on Saturday evening, David was seen opening his arms to stick to his repo of being a ‘big hitter’.