India's red-ball captain Rohit Sharma who missed the first Test match on the occasion of the birth of his second child, has returned to Australia ahead of the second Test match. He was sitting with head coach Gautam Gambhir and watching the ongoing first Test match.
He also went to practice in between the Test match with the net bowlers. Rohit's dedication to the game is unreal. Rohit's return brings out an important topic ahead of the 2nd Test match: who will he replace? Technically, KL Rahul was playing in place of him as an opener and Padikkal was playing in place of Shubman Gill who sustained a finger injury in the practice sessions.
Now, Rahul played a decent knock of 26 runs in the first innings and 77 runs in the second. So keeping him out of the game would be unfair for the player. It was because of him India got to a decent score in both innings.
Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel are the only players who haven't performed yet. If Gill comes in, Padikkal will be dropped by default. So it's Dhruv Jurel who will have to lose his place to accommodate the captain into the side.
Virat Kohli hits his 81st ton in international cricket
Former India skipper Virat Kohli has finally hit his 81st century after a wait of one year. It was an unbelievable moment for the supporters as the player got to the century in 143 balls in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy 2024. He enjoyed batting out there in Perth, where he already has a century in 2018. However, scenes are completely different as India are dominating the Australians in their own home ground.
The visitors need just three wickets to win the game and break Australia's streak of four continuous wins in Perth. Jasprit Bumrah claimed a fifer in the first innings and was terrific in the second by taking three wickets. After this, India have to win three more games to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 finals.