Rohit return looms with India to become even stronger

Trounced by almost 300 runs in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series opener, Australia face the daunting prospect of taking on an even stronger India side for the second Test in Adelaide. 

Close to 10,000 Test runs and more than 300 Test wickets could come back into the visitors' XI, with captain Rohit Sharma leading the likely inclusions for the pink-ball contest beginning next week.

Rohit landed in Perth on Sunday having stayed behind in Mumbai while the first Test was played due to the birth of his second child. The opener had a long hit in the Perth Stadium nets during the lunch break on day four against the squad's reserve pacemen and spinner Ravindra Jadeja. 

Shubman Gill could also resume his spot at No.3 after injuring his thumb in the lead-in to the Perth Test. 

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has raised the prospect of Jadeja returning as well after being left out alongside fellow spin-bowling allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin in favour of Washington Sundar.

Washington, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel would be in the firing line if Rohit, Gill, and one of Jadeja or Ashwin came back in. KL Rahul could be bumped down the order after an impressive return to opening spot while filling in for Rohit.

Bumrah said he was happy to hand the reins back to Rohit, who looks set to be involved in the day-night Prime Minister's XI tour game in Canberra beginning Saturday.

"He's the captain of our side and he's done a phenomenal job," Bumrah told reporters on Monday. 

"I was filling in for him, I still had discussions when he was in India discussing how we were shaping up. But I'm not going to tell him that I'm going to lead. I'm going to help him in whatever capacity I can."

Bumrah has set a high bar for Rohit.

The fast bowler, whose pride at getting India off to a strong start in the series was palpable, pulled all the rights reins during the four-day win.

The right-armer was close to unplayable with the new ball in hand. It has left Australia wondering what more they can do to prepare for his awkward action.

His ability to hit the stumps – three of his eight wickets were LBWs – was some feat given the bounce of the Perth pitch, but entirely in keeping with his rare ability to hit the stumps on Australian pitches.

Of his 40 wickets (at 18.80) taken in Australia, more than half have been bowled or lbw – a much higher rate than most successful seamers here.

"Usually in Perth there could be a scenario when you come from India (where) the bounce is not as prominent as what is here," said Bumrah. 

"So you tend to be bowl a little short, you get excited by the bounce and you can't find the length.

"It looks good when you bowl a back-of-length delivery and the batsman gets beaten, but the batsman is still there.

"So you have to find the right length, and as I said we knew that if we make them play more there's enough in the wicket to give us assistance.

"So we were focusing on our strength, we as a bowling unit do get a lot of dismissals with bowled, (lbw) and caught behind.

"So we realised you have to stick to your strengths and find the right length over here, and we were able to do that."

From a captaincy perspective, Bumrah's call to declare late on day three proved a masterstroke and appeared to take the hosts by surprise, calling his side in after Virat Kohli brought up his century. In 26 balls before stumps India had taken three wickets, Bumrah two of them.

That came after revealing how he had settled his side after their first innings score of 150, which appeared sub-par after he had won the toss and batted first.

"The message was that sometimes when you're bowled out for a lower score you can be a little too desperate and you can go pole-hunting, and you can try and be too desperate and try too much to get wickets," said Bumrah.

"So that was the message, when you try too much over here it doesn't really help and the run scoring goes high.

"The message was we'll be nice and disciplined and we'll make run-making as difficult as we can because that's what has worked in the past over here as well.

"And we are able to do that, that gives us a lot of success."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal