Cricket Australia, on December 09, has announced that they are set to keep their doors open for their preparation for the third of the five-match Test series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 at the Gabba in Brisbane, which will take place on Thursday, December 12, before the encounter takes place two days later on Saturday.
Australia has decided to use the stadium for their open training session, with the fans being welcomed free of charge to come and attend the nearly four-hour-long session at the ground, which at once was considered to be the fortress of the home side. But those old days are gone, as they have started to lose a few consistent games at that venue.
Under Tim Paine, they lost the series decider of the BGT 2020/21 against India when Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill nailed them around the ground before they made a great comeback under Pat Cummins against England in the following Ashes and later against South Africa.
Also Read: Pakistan Has No Choice But To Accept Hybrid Model For ICC Champions Trophy 2025- Madan Lal
But at the start of the year, Australia had already lost their day-night fixture at the Gabba against West Indies, when the young pacer from Guyana, Shamar Joseph, went through their batting line-up in both innings.
Australia opens net-session in Brisbane amidst India’s displeasure
The decision from the hosts has come on the back of India announcing that they would not host any of the open training sessions for the rest of the series down under. The decision of the touring side came after a few of their players claimed that they weren’t satisfied with the presence of the fans at the nets. The veterans, like captain Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, stated that amidst the full capacity, it was hard to keep the concentration going.
“Very different, not used to it. We have practice with crowds, but it’s mostly T20 and ODIs back home; we’ve had crowds come in and watch our practice sessions. So, it felt a little different.” The Karnataka-born opening batter informed the reporters ahead of the second Test at the Adelaide Oval.
The Indian players reportedly were disappointed with the continuous request of the fans for their selfies and autographs, which never helped them in getting focused on the job at hand. The same has taken place with Australia, as the home reports reckoned that the players were not pleased with the fans mocking them for missing deliveries during the net sessions.
Rohit, on the post-match press conference in Adelaide, expressed that the press conferences had been quite private and they don’t want the tactical decisions or strategies to get leaked through the media to the opponents.
“You know, the net sessions are very private, and this was the first time I saw so many people during the nets. And when you’re training, when you’re practicing, there are a lot of conversations that happen, and those conversations are very private. We don’t want anyone to hear those conversations. It is as simple as that because there’s a lot of planning.” He concluded.
India had their two-day pink-ball fixture at the Manuka Oval in Canberra before they opened their practice for the fans. Australia will now do the same for the Gabba Test. On the back of their 10-wicket victory in the second encounter, they topped the table for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25, only for South Africa to take away the place after their incredible 2-0 series over Sri Lanka.
A series win for Australia will see them getting near to the final of the third cycle of the tournament, which takes place in June next year at Lord’s.