New Delhi: The start of the much-anticipated warm-up match between India and Australia Prime Minister’s XI has been delayed due to bad weather in Canberra. The Australian capital has been going through phases of heavy rain and continuous drizzling since Friday which has forced the two teams to stay inside the pavillion. The toss for the game was scheduled at 2:10 pm local time (8:40 am IST) which got delayed due to incessant rain.
This means an obvious and inevitable delay in the start of the game as chances seem bleak if any gameplay will be possible on the opening day. As per the weather forecast, the Australian government has already issued a thunderstorm alert and a minor flood alert for the day in the city. The alerts make it clear what the capital city is currently going through, therefore, it would be too naive to carry hopes of a start on Day 1, unless a miracle takes place.
A bit of rain around in Canberra today unfortunately, which means the start of the Prime Minister’s XI v India two-day day-night match has been delayed #PMXIvIND
Stay tuned for updates: https://t.co/Odgxo5D7tV pic.twitter.com/jMZhNXvoiP
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 30, 2024
Canberra weather today
As per AccuWeather, the chances of rain are too high and the weather is expected to remain “cloudy, breezy, and cooler.” There’s close to a 100% chance of precipitation and the thunderstorm chances are quite decent as well. Complete cloud cover is expected throughout the day with six hours of expected rain. Things won’t improve much as night time approaches and the temperature will vary from 17 to 19 degrees Celsius.
What about Day 2?
Nonetheless, the weather for the second day (December 1) doesn’t look promising as well. The current forecast according to AccuWeather reads “mostly cloudy and warmer, breezy in the afternoon with a brief shower or two”. Although conditions would be a bit better than Day 1 but there remain serious doubts on whether would it be game-worthy because the wet field needs to be dried up quickly. There’s a 61% precipitation chance with more than 80% of cloud cover. With a bit of temperature rise, the alert for minor flood stays intact for Day 2 as well.
The Indian squad made its way to the Manuka Oval and as per a few media reports, they got drenched while entering the ground. They were game-ready in time, donning their respective jerseys and waiting for the weather to clear up. While having some spare time, they had a photo session with Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese whom they had also met a couple of days back.
Meanwhile, if the two-day match is completely washed out, there can be a serious impact on the Indian side as they will have to directly get into action at the Adelaide Oval for the pink-ball Test. The warm-up match was scheduled to be prepared for the day-night Test, which isn’t usually played across the world.
Prime Ministers XI Squad:
Jack Edwards (c), Matt Renshaw, Jack Clayton, Oliver Davies, Jayden Goodwin, Sam Harper (wk), Charlie Anderson, Sam Konstas, Scott Boland, Lloyd Pope, Hanno Jacobs, Mahli Beardman, Aidan O Connor, Jem Ryan.
India Squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal.
Bad weather in Canberra has forced the start of two-day warm up match between India and Australia Prime Minister’s XI to be delayed. It’s raining heavily in the capital city and dark clouds are looming over the day-night pink-ball affair. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
