Just a week prior to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test, an intra-squad match simulation at the WACA ground on Friday meant KL Rahul did his right elbow much harm he left the field.
Three days of full net practice at the WACA later, India played out a match simulation in which Rahul, after having amassed 29, received a blow on his right elbow from a rising delivery from tall pacer Prasidh Krishna.
Images showed Rahul getting visibly uncomfortable, which brought the team physio onto the field to attend to him. Ultimately, the 32-year-old had to leave the field. Rahul is likely to play India's opening along with Yashasvi Jaiswal at Perth Stadium if skipper Rohit Sharma is away due to personal reasons.
No word has emerged from the Indian team as of yet on the extent of Rahul's elbow injury. Meanwhile, talismanic batter Virat Kohli, who was undergoing scans for some unknown injury in Perth, according to the *Sydney Morning Herald*, was in great touch with a few some quite stellar cover drives before getting out. Kohli later went practicing in the adjacent nets for some fine-tuning of his batting.
Kohli, who last notched a Test century against the West Indies in Port of Spain in July 2023, has failed to deliver in India's last two home Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand with only one half-century and an average of 21.33. But in Australia, he has simply been brilliant with 1352 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 54.08, including six centuries and four half-centuries.
Kohli, Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Dhruv Jurel were dismissed edging behind in updates from the intra-squad practice match, while Rishabh Pant was clean bowled by Nitish Kumar Reddy.
The five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 will be played across Perth, Adelaide (a pink-ball game), Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney from November 22 to January 7, 2025.
India, having won the previous two series in Australia by 2-1 in 2018/19 and 2020/21, will hope to continue that masterclass when the teams meet in what will be the first five-match Test series between the two nations since 1991/92.
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