Australia v India: Test training blow for Rohit Sharma as side leads by 472 runs in tour match

India finished Day Two against Australia A with a lead of 472 runs. Meanwhile Rohit Sharma faces a training hurdle.

Under-pressure Joe Burns of Australia A fields during Day Two of the tour match against India at Sydney Cricket Ground. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

India’s world-class batting maestro Rohit Sharma is set to be refused training privileges when he touches down as Virat Kohli’s mid-tour replacement.

Rohit went AWOL when the Indian cricket squad flew to Australia last month, causing friction with captain Kohli, and the tourists are still paying a heavy price for their superstar run-maker missing that plane.

The Australian Government will not allow Rohit out of his room to train during his two weeks in quarantine as it permitted his teammates to do, because he will be arriving into Sydney on a commercial flight on his own.

India’s first Test batting hopes did receive a major boost at the SCG on Saturday, though, as middle-order hopeful Hanuma Vihari (104 not out) carved out an expert century against Australia A’s pink-ball attack, while keeper Rishabh Pant (103 not out) went four, four, six, four, four in the last over of Day Two to bring up his ton off just 73 balls.

Rohit Sharma of India. Picture: Getty Images

Rohit passed a fitness test on his injured hamstring and will miss the first two Tests, but he now faces an uphill battle to prove himself for the third Test as well, given he won’t emerge from a fortnight of strict lockdown until late December.

The inability to bat in the nets and properly stretch his legs is hardly ideal preparation for an athlete coming off a hamstring injury, particularly given the spate of soft tissue complaints that have plagued Australia and India since their own isolation period following the IPL last month.

David Warner, Aaron Finch, Sean Abbott and Ravi Jadeja among those affected.

Rohit will have just over a week on the outside to prepare for the Sydney Test starting on January 7, but India will be hoping he can belatedly fill the void left when Kohli heads home after the first Test.

The man who will take over the captaincy from Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane also followed up a century he made in last week’s opening tour game with another confidence-building innings, as India finished Day Two of the tour match against Australia A on Saturday at 4-386, with a lead of 472 runs.

Pant, who was famously invited to baby sit for Tim Paine two summers ago, was 81 at the start of the last Jack Wildermuth over, before putting on a boundary hitting exhibition.

Shubman Gill of India bats during Day Two. Picture: Getty Images

Joe Burns and Marcus Harris will bat on Sunday, even if the declaration is not immediate, after Australian Test squad spinner Mitchell Swepson endured a difficult day out with figures of 1-148 from 29 overs.

Burns has one more innings for Australia A against the Indian attack to save himself for the axe.

Harris looks set for an astonishing comeback to Test cricket after Will Pucovski’s baggy green dream vanished at the 11th hour for the third consecutive season.

Three weeks ago, Harris was not even in a 17-man Australian Test squad and would have rated himself a 100-1 chance of playing the first Test as No 4 on the pecking order of the country’s opening batsmen.

But now the only question would appear to be who will partner him at the top of the order in Adelaide, with a positive health update on the condition of gun all-rounder Cameron Green heaping enormous pressure on incumbent opener Burns to hold his place.

On another dramatic day in the Australian selection room, Green was confirmed as showing clinical and symptomatic improvement following the freakish concussion he suffered on Friday night and there is confidence he can still make his Test debut this week because he has no history of prior head knocks.

However, Pucovski, who suffered the ninth concussion of his career last Tuesday, was ruled out of the first Test – with Harris is replacement – but will remain part of the squad and push for that elusive debut on Boxing Day at the MCG.

India’s 21-year-old star Prithvi Shaw is considered the frontrunner to open in Adelaide, despite a reasonably lean start to his tour.

He is facing pressure from another emerging talent Shubman Gill, who made 65 against Australia A.

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Jamieson’s five leave West Indies reeling

Kyle Jamieson bagged five wickets in a masterclass of swing bowling as New Zealand struck hard and fast to have the West Indies on the ropes on day two of the second Test in Wellington on Saturday.

The tourists ended the day on the brink of another follow on as they struggled to 124 for eight, still 336 behind New Zealand’s 460.

Only Jermaine Blackwood provided any serious resistance but he fell late in the day for 69 as Jamieson and Tim Southee wreaked havoc.

Jamieson, the rising star in the Black Caps, got five for 34 for his second five-wicket haul in only his fourth Test.

The Basin Reserve strip continued to provide all the ingredients on a fast bowler’s wish list -- pace, bounce and movement -- and New Zealand exploited this perfectly.

“The way the ball’s moving we knew if we got it in good enough areas then things would happen,” said the 2.08 metre (6ft 8in) Jamieson.

“It was just a matter of doing it for long enough and if you do that you tend to get rewarded.” After a demoralising innings defeat in the first Test, West Indies coach Phil Simmons found it difficult to see another batting collapse.

“It’s something that we brought on ourselves,” he said, adding the problems started in the field when Henry Nicholls was dropped five times on his way to making 174 for New Zealand.

“Then, we didn’t bat as well as we should have been batting on a wicket that seems good for batting. It was a hard day to watch,” he said, blaming poor shot selection.

AFP