Early finish, more rest: Indian team to assemble on 25 Feb in Indore

Delhi: Most of the Indian players headed home after the second Test in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia ended inside three days. The entire team visited the Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya in New Delhi after a thumping win to take a 2-0 lead in the four-Test series.

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While the Australian team left the venue early, Indian players stayed back and the team bus left the stadium around 4 pm. Plenty of spectators stayed back to get a close look of their heroes and madness unfolded when the team bus navigated through the narrow lane connecting the stadium to the main road.

Rohit Sharma-led unit will now assemble in Indore for the third Test, scheduled for 1 March, on 25 February and the first practice session will take place the subsequent day. The same has been informed to MPCA (Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association), the association hosting the game which was moved from Dharamsala earlier this month, and they have initiated necessary arrangements.

Batter Shreyas Iyer reached Mumbai on 20 February morning and his Instagram posts suggest former India coach Ravi Shastri, now on commentary duties, travelled back with him.

News from the Australian camp, however, is not pleasant as captain Pat Cummins has rushed back home due to a family health issue and teammate Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the series. David Warner is still recovering from the elbow injury and went sightseeing with family in New Delhi.

The belligerent opener had a torrid time in the first two Tests and didn’t come out to bat in the second innings of the Delhi Test due to the blows he took in the first innings.

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Trailing the series 0-2, Australia have a lot of work to do and would like to press the reset button during this break ahead of the third Test of the series. The visitors have looked all at sea in the series so far and need to put up a solid show with the bat to compete in the series.

Mitchell Starc joined the team in New Delhi and should be available for selection for the Indore Test. Cameron Green, who missed the first two Tests with injury, is likely to be 100% before the action gets underway on 1 March.

Like Nagpur and Delhi, Indore will be another trial by spin for the visiting Aussies and they need to find better ways than pre-meditated sweeping to counter R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel.

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