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The Indian batsmen had a good start to the Test series against Australia as five out of the top six batsmen scored a half-century on day 2 of the only warm-up against Cricket Australia XI at the SCG in Sydney.
Put into bat, India lost opener KL Rahul cheaply for 3 but his opening partner Prithvi Shaw looked in good touch as he took on the Aussie bowlers and put them under pressure.
He used the pull shot and the cut shot to full effect and prepared himself for the first Test in Adelaide in the best possible way. He, along with Cheteshwar Pujara, put on 80 runs for the second wicket before he was castled by Daniel Fallins for 66.
Pujara also looked good during his stay at the crease by scoring a 54 before he was dismissed by a delivery that just moved away after pitching to hit the top of off-stump.
Skipper Virat Kohli looked at his best and scored a fifty of his own before he was unlucky to get dismissed for 64, thanks to a good reflex catch by Aaron Hardie off his own bowling.
Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari, who batted at number six ahead of Rohit Sharma, put on 81 runs for the fifth wicket. Both the batsmen looked solid at the wicket and Vihari made a case for himself ahead of the first Test by scoring 53 before he was unlucky to be given out lbw off the bowling of D'Arcy Short.
Rahane reached his fifty and stitched a 62-run stand with Rohit Sharma, who was out for 40, before retiring out for 56. The lower-order hardly contributed as India were restricted to 358 in their innings with Shaw, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane and Vihari crossing the 50-run mark.
Aaron Hardie was the pick of the CA XI bowlers as he ended with figures of 4/50 in his spell. In reply, CA XI openers started off confidently against Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami as they ended the day on 24/0.
The likes of Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel and Ravindra Jadeja didn't come out to bat for India till the end and these could be signs of what Kohli has in his mind before the start of the first Test.
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