India vs Australia 2017: India's practice session in Ranchi cancelled due to rain

What's the story?

Ahead of the first T20I between India and Australia at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi, the Indian players were forced to cancel their practice sessions yesterday.

The Men in Blue, who arrived in the city in batches, were supposed to train at the venue last evening but showers that lasted for around an hour forced them to stay put in the team hotel.

On the other hand, the visitors, who were practising in the afternoon, had their session go through without any rain threat.

In case you didn't know...

After winning the five-match ODI series 4-1, the Indian team will take on the Aussies in a three-match T20I series starting on the 7th of this month in MS Dhoni's hometown of Ranchi. The Indian selectors ringed in few changes to the squad that played in the ODI series as the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav were excluded while Shikhar Dhawan, who was released from the ODI team before the first ODI, Dinesh Karthick and veteran seamer Ashish Nehra were drafted into the T20I side.

Details

All the ODI matches had a rain threat looming large over them before the start of play but somehow managed to produce a result on all the occasions. The trend might continue in the T20I series as well as the rain cancelled India's net sessions a couple of days before the match.

But, the JSCA officials are confident that there won't be any threat of rain on Saturday as last night's instance was just a passing shower and the board has adequate measures for the ground so that the match will go on as per the schedule.

"Such passing showers are normal this time. But the good thing is rain comes and goes and is not prolonged this time of the year. We have adequate measures to prepare the ground for the match," the official said.

What's next?

The first of the three matches will be played in Ranchi on October 7 before the carnival moves to Guwahati for the second T20I on October 10 and Hyderabad for the third T20I on October 13.

Author's Take

Last night's rains were nothing more than passing showers and this kind of showers are a common thing in the region in this part of the year. The forecast in the city on the day of the match says that there will be thunderstorms during the daytime and the weather will leave way for Cricket at night.