Returning Sharma opts to stick with India's opening combination against Australia

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — India’s winning combination is likely to get a bigger overhaul than Australia’s losing lineup from the opening match in Perth when the five-test series moves to Adelaide for the day-night, pink ball match.

Returning skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill have to squeeze back into the batting lineup after missing the big win in Perth last week, when paceman Jasprit Bumrah led India to a massive victory in a city where Australia usually dominates cricket.

Rohit said KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who combined for a 201-run opening partnership to give India the ascendency in the first test, would continue as the opening pair and he would bat “somewhere in the middle.”

Sharma usually bats at the top of the order but he missed the first test to be at the birth of his second child. He said he realized then that he didn't want to split up the opening formula.

“I was at home with my newborn in my arms and I was watching how KL batted and it was brilliant, to be honest," he said. "I felt there was no need to change that now.

“Clearly we want results, we want success, and those two guys at the top ... just looking at this one test match, they batted brilliantly."

Australia is set for just one lineup change when the second test starts Friday, with Scott Boland recalled for his first test match since the 2023 Ashes series to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood.

The 33-year-old Hazlewood, who took match figures of 5-57 from 34 overs in Australia’s heavy 295-run defeat in the first test, is out with a side strain.

Mitch Marsh will play and Australia skipper Pat Cummins said the allrounder is available to bowl, despite experiencing back soreness in Perth after bowling 17 overs last week.

“Made the call with the medical team over the last couple of days to give him a couple of days off bowling but expect him to warm up and, if required, will bowl,” Cummins said Thursday. "Guessing he would be required at some point.”

The Australians in recent decades have rarely been behind after a series-opening test on home soil, and are on the wrong end of a four-series streak against India. So the second match in Adelaide, where they're undefeated in the day-night test format, is crucial for team morale. Only one Australian team has rallied from 2-0 down to win a five-test series

“When you’re down there’s a little bit more (pressure) but we have been in similar situations in World Cups or other series," Cummins said. “We know we weren’t at our best last week, we have got a few things to work on.”

Cummins said the expected movement of the pink ball in the day-night conditions would suit Boland.

“As a captain, it’s pretty awesome to have Scotty come straight in,” he said.

India isn't expected to confirm its starting XI until the toss on Friday. Apart from Sharma and Gill, there's speculation veteran spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin will return.

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Lineups:

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.

India (from): India: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaisval, Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma (captain) Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohamed Siraj.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Australia's captain Pat Cummins dives to field the ball on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

Australia's captain Pat Cummins tosses the ball as he prepares to bowl on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

Australia's Alex Carey ducks to avoid a bouncer from India's captain Jasprit Bumrah on the fourth day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

India's captain Jasprit Bumrah, center, celebrates with teammate Dhruv Jurel the wicket of Australia's Travis Head on the fourth day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

India's Virat Kohli celebrates his century on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

India's Virat Kohli, right, celebrates the wicket of Australia's Travis Head after Rishabh Pant, left, took the catch on the fourth day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

India's Yashasvi Jaiswal, left, celebrates his century as teammate India's KL Rahul applauds on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

A tense calm hangs over Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that deposed President Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face criminal charges.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

Maduro and his wife landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York. The couple face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.

Here's the latest:

Associated Press video on Sunday shows a banner now on display in Iran’s capital warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take action in the country.

Trump’s recent comment that the U.S. “will come to their rescue” if Iran kills peaceful protesters has taken on a new meaning after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said adversaries of the U.S. should note that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”

From California to Missouri and Texas, protestors are planning demonstrations Sunday and through the week against President Donald Trump’s military operation and capture of Maduro, which one protest description called “the illegal, unconstitutional invasion of Venezuela.”

Dozens appear to be organized by chapters of Indivisible, a left-leaning group, and many take umbrage with Trump’s plans to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who serves as Senate president pro tempore, posted on X Saturday that Maduro is a narco-terrorist and his drug trafficking resulted in the deaths of too many Americans. He likened the Trump operation to then-President George Bush’s decision in 1989 to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega following his indictment for drug trafficking.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, posted that U.S. military action in Venezuela is unconstitutional and is putting troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy. “The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” Pritzker wrote.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, posted a statement on X calling the strikes illegal and criticizing Trump for taking action without congressional approval. “The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources,” she wrote.

France’s foreign minister says the departure of President Nicolás Maduro “is good news for the Venezuelans” and called for a peaceful and democratic transition of power.

Jean-Noël Barrot said “Maduro was an unscrupulous dictator who confiscated Venezuelans’ freedom and stole their elections.”

“Then, yes, we pointed out that the method used infringes the principles of international law,” Barrot said about the U.S. military operation on France 2 national television.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called Maduro “a horrible, horrible person” but added, “You don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that’s what’s happened.”

“We have learned through the years that, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and results,” Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says President Donald Trump’s conversations with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez now are ”very matter-of-fact and very clear: You can lead or you can get out of the way, because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.”

Noem tells “Fox News Sunday” that the United States wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” when it comes to stopping drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country.”

She says that “we’re looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people but also ensure that they’re not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to back off Trump’s assertions that the U.S. was running Venezuela, insisting instead that Washington will use control of the South American country’s oil industry to force policy changes and, “We expect that it’s going to lead to results here.”

“We’re hopeful, hopeful, that it does positive results for the people for Venezuela,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week.” “But, ultimately, most importantly, in the national interest of the United States.”

Asked about Trump suggesting that Rubio would be among the U.S. officials helping to run Venezuela, Rubio offered no details but said, “I’m obviously very intricately involved in the policy” going forward.

He said of Venezuela’s interim leader: “We don’t believe this regime in place is legitimate” because the country never held free and fair elections.

Venezuela’s capital Caracas was unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around. Convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses were mostly closed.

The presence of police and members of the military across the city was notable for its smaller size compared with an average day and even more so with the days when people protested against Maduro’s government in previous years.

Meanwhile, soldiers attempted to clear an area of an air base that had been on fire along with at least three passenger buses following Saturday’s U.S. attack.

The Brooklyn jail holding Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.

It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.

Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.

Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.

▶ Read more about MDC Brooklyn

Residents look at a damaged apartment complex that neighbors say was hit during U.S. strikes to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A soldier stands atop an armored vehicle driving toward Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Shoppers line up at a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)