Melbourne, Australia

India’s KL Rahul had yet another bad day at the office on Thursday (Nov 7) after he failed to make the most of his chances in the second unofficial Test match between India A and Australia A. On Day 1 of the game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Rahul was dismissed for 4, potentially killing his chances for a place in the Playing XI during the official series that kickstarts on November 22. On the other hand, Dhruv Jurel made the most of the chance and smashed 80 runs despite India A getting bowled out for 161. 

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Rahul fails yet again

Rahul had been in the news having faced criticism lately and being released by his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). However, his latest failure has added more woes after he gave away his wicket to Aussie pacer Scott Boland. When Rahul was dismissed, India were 9/3 and were later reduced to 11/4 as the batters failed to make their mark. Rahul was under scrutiny for a while having scored only 12 runs in his only Test match against New Zealand.

On the other hand, top domestic performers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan also failed to break the duck as Indian batters struggled big time. None of India’s top four batters were unable to reach double figures with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (4) also proving unable to tackle the Aussie bowling onslaught.

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The Indian team has been victorious in the last two visits to Australia and also won the Boxing Day Test in 2020. Rohit Sharma’s men will look to repeat the heroics as they look to take a giant step towards the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India-Australia series) Schedule

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1st Test: 22nd November to 26th November, Perth

2nd Test: 6th December to 10th December, Adelaide

3rd Test: 14th December to 18th December, Brisbane

4th Test: 26th December to 30th December, Melbourne

5th Test: 3rd January to 7th January, Sydney