Suryakumar Yadav and Arshdeep Singh star as India beat Western Australia XI by 13 runs in warm-up match

India defeated Western Australia XI by 13 runs in their first warm-up match at the WACA Ground in Perth on Monday (October 10) to kick off their preparations on a confident note in Australia ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022. Suryakumar Yadav continued his fine form with the bat as he played a brilliant knock of 52 runs off 35 balls while Arshdeep Singh was the hero with the ball for India.

India went into the game without two of their key batters in the form of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant opened the batting with captain Rohit Sharma. Opting to bat first, India got off to a shaky start as the visitors lost both Rohit (3) and Pant (9) cheaply before Suryakumar steadied the ship with his fifty.

In Kohli’s absence, Deepak Hooda batted at number three and looked in good touch during his 22 off 14 balls laced with a solitary six and two fours. Suryalumar struck three fours and as many sixes en route to his 52 off 35 as he added 49 runs for the fourth wicket with Hardik Pandya (27 off 20).

The Indian batters were up against a quality Western Australia bowling attack consisting of the likes of Jason Behrendorff, Jhye Richardson and Andrew Tye among others. India managed to post a fighting total of 158 runs on the board before the bowlers impressed to secure a comfortable victory for the visitors.

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Arshdeep was the star with the ball as he once again bowled a sensational spell with the new ball picking up the wickets of Western Australia opener Nick Hobson (1) and no.3 Aaron Hardie in his very first over. He bowled two more excellent overs and picked up another wicket to finish with brilliant figures of 3/6 in his three overs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal managed to pick up two wickets each as India restricted Western Australia on 145/8 in 20 overs to win the game by 13 runs. India will face Western Australia once again in their second warm-up game on October 13 before facing Australia and New Zealand in their two official warm-up games.

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India will begin their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23. The Men in Blue still haven’t finalised the replacement for injured Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the start of the tournament and will be hoping to rope in a quality replacement for the fast bowler, who will miss the T20 World Cup due to a back injury.