Canberra: Sunday at the Manuka Oval was supposed to be all about Rohit Sharma but it was also about the fans who turned up from far and wide to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars.

Day one of the tour game against the Prime Minister’s XI had been abandoned due to rain but the 50-over pink ball one-day match saw a very decent turnout of 5,324 with some driving in from Sydney for the weekend and others taking even longer trips. Many of the Indian players obliged them with autographs but the fans were a little disappointed not to see Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah (both had intense net sessions) play the game.

But when Rohit stepped out in his whites for the toss, a huge roar went up. It would be a chance to see the Indian skipper in action for the first time on the tour.

The Indians won the toss and chose to bowl as they, presumably, wanted to bat against the pink ball under the lights. A brief rain delay after five overs reduced the match to a 46-over contest.

Konstas hits ton

The 19-year-old Sam Konstas was the shining light for the young Australian PM’s XI, scoring a fine 107 off 97 to show that he is indeed one for the future. He had impressed with a fine unbeaten 73 in the match between the A teams at Melbourne as well and there is something about his batting that strikes you.

“Tim Paine told me to go out there and play like it is a 46-over match and I tried to do that,” said Konstas after the game. “There were quite a few bowlers I hadn’t played before, so facing up to the world class Indian attack was a good experience.”

A mid-innings collapse pegged the Aus PM XI back but they still managed to put 240 on the board. For the Indians, Harshit Rana was the most impressive bowler — claiming 4/44. In reply, India won by six wickets, finishing on 257/5 in the 46 overs.

But things became interesting when India came out to bat as KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were first in. Most were expecting Rohit to start things off but this move will only plant a seed of doubt on the Aussies and the fans.

Jaiswal, Rahul shine

Rahul was brilliant in Perth, both technically and temperamentally. He also had a very good thing going with Yashasvi Jaiswal and their partnership had a lovely relaxed rhythm to it. And sometimes, you don’t want to disturb the set balance.

The job of the openers is to see off the new ball and they did that very well. Now, Rohit, the regular opener, is back and in most instances the team would go back to the regular order.

But given how well Rahul batted in Perth and at the Manuka Oval, many might consider having him continue as an opener not being a bad idea. Don’t fix what isn’t broken but this will then raise the question of where Rohit will bat.

If Shubman Gill and Kohli occupy the No.3 and 4 positions, then Rohit can slot into No.5. Given the depth of this particular batting line-up, he certainly will have enough partners. But the skipper may have different ideas.

Rahul finally retired after having scored 27 so that the other batters could have a go against the pink ball and he was once again very much in control — leaving the ball well and his timing was spot on too.

When he did finally walk off the field, Rohit walked in. Once again to a huge cheer. But he didn’t last very long, being dismissed after making just 3 runs off 11 balls. He chased a delivery that was well wide of the off-stump and got an edge through to first slip.

Jaiswal too had a decent hit in the middle. He played and missed a few times but then an issue with the back cropped up and he needed treatment by the physio. He continued batting but was clearly just trying to play as many shots as possible after that.

In some heartening news for India, Gill had a good stint in the middle, scoring 50 off 62 balls before retiring. He seemed to have no real issues with the injured thumb and looked quite comfortable while batting.

Also, the other subtext of the match was to see how Scott Boland would bowl to the Indian batters. With Josh Hazlewood having been ruled out, there is a good chance that Australia will go with the right-arm pacer. He was getting the ball to leave Jaiswal well and turned in a useful spell of 10-2-36-0.

Nitish Reddy played quite a few shots in the middle, including a reverse hit for six, to serve further notice of his batting talent.

This match really wasn’t about trying to win. Rather, it was just about trying to spend time in the middle against the pink ball, getting used to sighting it and playing under the lights too.

And from that perspective India will be glad to report that they ticked off most boxes. They would have perhaps liked the captain to get a few more runs but there is still some time before the Adelaide Test on December 6 to really fine tune things.

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