Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Driving home the advantage

Rohit Sharma will take a step back to lead from the front as India look for the perfect combination to drive home the advantage against a wounded but famously resilient Australia in the Day/Night Test starting here on Friday.

Rohit, returning to the side from a brief paternity break, has taken the tough call of pushing himself down the order to accommodate KL Rahul at the top alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal. Both Rahul and Jaiswal excelled in Perth and had a big part in India’s biggest overseas win. Shubman Gill has recovered from a thumb injury and will be back in the side alongside Rohit.

The resourceful side would be happy to have the headache of having to shuffle the side than being understrength, which was the case when they last toured and beat all expectations to come out trumps.

Ahead of the second Test, Rohit said he decided to change his batting position keeping the team’s interests in mind. “We want result, we want success. Those two guys at the top they batted brilliantly in Perth. I was watching from home. Rahul was brilliant to watch. He deserves that place at this point in time. There is no need to change that now, may be things will be different in future. Personally not easy for me (to move down) but for the team it made a lot of sense,” said Rohit, adding that he will bat somewhere in the middle.

Playing Australia in Australia tends to bring the best out of the visiting Indian team which defied all expectations to boss the series-opener in Perth, handing Australia their first loss at the Optus Stadium.

In their last trip Down Under, India made a comeback for the ages following the 36 all out debacle at the Adelaide Oval but the visitors are placed much better this time around, following the resounding result in the opening Test.

However, the day-night game presents a different challenge for the visiting team batters, who will have to be at their best to negate the extra seam movement generated by the pink ball, especially in the twilight phase.

Australia, who have lost only one out of their 12 Day/Night Tests at home, will be hurting from the hiding in Perth and having got a 10-day breather, they will be under pressure to make a comeback in the series.

Rohit, whose Test career got a second wind after he started opening in 2019, will bat in the middle order at least for the time being. The captain would want to be back among the runs after a lean home series against New Zealand. Rohit and Gill will bolster the playing XI at the expense of Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel. Having recovered from a thumb injury, Gill looked good in the practice match and will carry the confidence of his past performances in Australia when he walks in to bat at the hallowed ground.

The biggest positives with the bat in Perth were Virat Kohli regaining his rhythm and Jaiswal’s coming of age hundred in his debut Test in Australia. Both will look to build on those significant gains here. No changes are expected in the bowling department though traditionally, the Adelaide pitch has aided the spinners, bringing R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja into discussion.

Australia, on the other hand, have plenty to worry about as they aim to level the series. Their best bowler in Perth, Josh Hazlewood, has been ruled out of the game due to injury.

The usually accurate Scott Boland will replace him in the side and can trouble the Indian batters with his relentless off-stump channel bowling. It will be Boland’s first Test in almost 18 months. “Traditionally there’s normally a bit of nip which obviously suits Scotty quite well,” captain Pat Cummins said. “As a captain it’s pretty awesome for someone like Scotty to come in. You know he can bowl a huge amount of overs if you need. He’s super consistent, he’s performed at this level, so he’s ready to go.”