IND v AUS: Cameron Green, Mitchell Starc sweat it out to prove match fitness under New Delhi sunshine

NIHARIKA RAINA

New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Under the New Delhi sunshine coupled with cold winds, Australia kickstarted their practice for the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against India, starting from Friday, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

All the attention from the visitors' nets session were totally centered on left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc and fast-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green, two of their mainstays who missed the first Test in Nagpur due to finger injuries suffered in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa.

While Starc had a tendon injury on his middle finger while trying to take a catch in the deep, Green had fractured his right index finger while batting against tearaway pacer Anrich Nortje and needed surgery.

But in Wednesday's practice session, Green showed that he could get into the playing eleven for Friday's Test as a genuine all-rounder. Green took some catches in the outfield with the hard red ball and didn't look in much discomfort, after he did soft balls catching in Nagpur.

With the red/white ball, Green bowled for a long time on the side wicket and looked in a nice rhythm. As far as batting in concerned, Green batted for nearly an hour after coming in shortly after noon, though he didn't face any fast bowler and winced in pain when he mis-timed some shots.

He punched well, looked solid in defence while facing throwdowns from Michael di Venuto, the batting coach, and from spin bowlers. He also brought out the reverse-sweep, front foot defence and straight drive against part-time spinners Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and bowling coach Daniel Vettori, apart from Cummins trying to bowl off-spin.

Starc, on the other hand, had two spells of bowling without the splint on his middle finger, apart from batting for a long time. In his first spell, he looked in little discomfort. But in his second spell, he seemed to be in a nice rhythm.

Having Green and Starc available for Friday's Test will increase the flexibility of the Australian team. A fast-bowling all-rounder like Green will give Australia the balance they missed in Nagpur while in Starc, they will get extra pace, ability to reverse-swing the old ball and create rough outside off-stump for off-spin duo of Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy.

Another player who could be in contention for a recall is left-handed batter Travis Head, whose omission from the Nagpur Test created a stir back home. While batting in the nets on Wednesday, Head was looking to use his feet more and was sturdy in defence against the spinners, including Usman Khawaja trying to bowl spin, apart from trying backfoot cuts and missing sweep against left-arm spin.

With another day's practice left before the Test begins from Friday, Starc, Green and Head, along with other members, would be aiming to finetune their fitness and clear doubts regarding playing spin under the bright spring sun at the stadium.