[Watch] Australian PM Anthony Albanese hosts Team India at Parliament House in Canberra ahead of BGT 2024-25 2nd Test
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosted Team India at Parliament House in Canberra ahead of the second Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which starts in Adelaide on December 6. The players interacted with the PM while taking a Parliament tour in the national capital.
Notably, Rohit Sharma and Co. will play a warmup game against the Australia PM XI in Canberra ahead of the pink-ball second Test. Skipper Rohit and Shubman Gill will get some game time after missing the opening game due to paternity leave and thumb injury, respectively. The practice game against the Australia PM XI is a common occurrence when India tours Down Under.
The BCCI shared a video and captioned it:
“Snippets from #TeamIndia's visit to the Parliament house ahead of the two-day pink ball match against PM XI. The Indian Cricket Team was hosted by the Honourable Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia.”
In the clip, Albanese congratulated the tourists for winning the series opener. He said:
“Congratulations to a stunning start to the series in Perth.”
India beat Australia by 295 runs in Perth to take a 1-0 lead in the series. With the victory, they also reclaimed the top spot in the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) points table. Notably, India are looking to make it a hat-trick of WTC finals, having reached the summit clash in 2021 and 2023, losing to New Zealand and Australia, respectively.
“Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we can entertain the Australian public and as well as the Indian fans” – Rohit Sharma backs Team India to continue good form in the ongoing BGT 2024-25 series
Rohit Sharma ensured Anthony Albanese that India will play a good brand of cricket in the remaining four Tests Down Under. He said (in the video above):
“It’s always been a great challenge to come here and play cricket and hopefully, in the next few weeks we can entertain the Australian public as well as the Indian fans. We are all excited. Thank you for having us here. It’s a pleasure, thanks!”
Team India are searching for a hat-trick of Test series wins in Australia, having won the 2018-19 and 2020-21 series by identical 2-1 margins.
India vs Australia PM XI squads
Prime Minister's XI squad: Jack Edwards (c), Charlie Anderson, Mahli Beardman, Scott Boland, Jack Clayton, Aidan O'Connor, Ollie Davies, Jayden Goodwin, Sam Harper, Hanno Jacobs, Sam Konstas, Lloyd Pope, Matthew Renshaw, Jem Ryan.
India squad: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Sarfaraz Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Easwaran.