AUS A vs IND A : What we learnt from three-day Warm-up match in Sydney

The first three-day warm-up game between the Indians and Australia A at the Drummoyne Oval in Sydney ended up in an interesting draw, with the game opening up a host of possibilities for both sides while laying bare the obvious cracks that need an immediate fix. CricXstay looks at the positives and negatives of the tour game that had the first-class status.

Cameron Green’s Sydney heroics a sign of a brilliant future

We have talked about this. Everyone talked about this. But this needs a reaffirmation. Cameron Green is a superstar in making and there are no two ways about it. Not only the Western Australian starred with both bat and ball, but he also did it in a way that would leave anyone gluing to the TV set gasping for breathe.

His batting was a sight for the sore eyes, as well as productive enough to push the Indians at the brink of a defeat at one point in time, while his bowling gave the Aussie team a wing to fly on. A four-wicket burst after being restricted to bowl at all – not even in the nets – for a year due to a severe back fracture tells you the impregnable amount of talent the boy from Perth possesses.

That should be enough to earn a Test cap sooner than later and one would assume by the time the Test caravan moves to Sydney after bypassing Adelaide and Melbourne, Green will have a Baggy Green on his head.

Also Read: Cameron Green Has Done His Part, Can Cricket Australia Do Their Part Too?

Both teams face opening dilemma

Indian openers Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw combinedly scored 48 runs in two innings to escalate the team management’s concern about who would open alongside Mayank Agarwal for the first Test in Adelaide. From the looks of it, none of Shubman Gill or Prithvi Shaw was convincing for a bit to warrant a spot in the side for the second Warm-up game in Sydney, let alone the Test match. Both looked all at sea while poking at every single delivery – a far cry from the usual promise they had a season or two ago.

If the situation was bad for the Indians, it was even worse for the Aussie team management which is still sweating over David Warner’s fitness. While both Will Pucovski and Joe Burns struggled to get the ground running, right now, the hosts might have to go with their fourth choice opener Marcus Harris from Victoria in the first Test. In the closing stages of the first-class game, Pucovski received a blow on his head against a Kartik Tyagi bouncer. That will spell a lot of trouble for the Aussies.

India can be hopeful about Ajinkya Rahane this time

After two disastrous years with the bat, in 2019, Ajinkya Rahane seemed to return to his old-game, scoring a fluent 102 and 81 in North Sound against West Indies before having a solid home season against South Africa and Bangladesh. That raised hope of him doing an encore in New Zealand but an average of 22.75 across four innings brought the normalcy back to the fore.

However, as the BCCI bestows Rahane with an added responsibility of leading the side, with Virat Kohli returning home after the first Test in Adelaide for the birth of his first child, Rahane showed what he has got. The centurion in the first innings, Rahane was the best player across both sides and his batting showed that effervescence quite beautifully. Very rarely was he troubled against the Aussie pacers in the three-day action and his captaincy was on the point as well. If this is a glimpse of the things to expect in the Test series, rest assured, we have a grand carnival in place.