You find fast bowlers everywhere in Perth. One of them was walking along Plain Street, which is a five-minute walk from WACA, with a shopping bag. Mitchell Starc will be a little less relaxed when the clock strikes 10:20 on Friday.
This Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been simmering for a while now. Rohit Sharma faced questions about this at the start of India’s domestic season in September, and the closing press conference in November was largely about easing the pain of a
domestic series lime trying to “do something special” in Australia. Pat Cummins
had a similar experience.
Some of the best Test cricket in recent times has come when these two teams have met, so it’s their fault that wherever they go they get questions about it. A day after the first test, most of them seem to have been answered. Australia have their new opening batsman,
Nathan McSweeney having made a late effort for work. India have KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana primed and ready if needed. All that remains is for experience to take over.
On Thursday night, in front of an empty stadium in Perth, the morning training sessions of the first day were taking place. Ordinary people pretended to be captains of India and Australia to check how it would look on screen. It was easy to be transported to the moment when all this would actually happen, and all that was left was sleep. It’s a sleep before Jasprit Bumrah comes in. One sleep left until Steven Smith is back at number 4. One sleep left until Virat Kohli brings the crowd to its feet. There is one sleep left before Rishabh Pant is broadcast to the entire world through the microphones.
Cricket, as entertaining as it is, will probably come with a bit of flavor added from the outside. There has already been a bit of a needle. Ricky Ponting’s quotes were taken out of context and led to Gautam Gambhir
enthusiastic. India’s initial efforts to
train privately caused a stir. Josh Hazlewood flew by when he said he was
happy not to see Cheteshwar Pujara in the Indian team. Every type of fan will be pleased with what the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will offer and the first ball is just a sleep away.
Australia: WWLWW (last five matches, most recent first)
India: LLLWW
It’s been more than eight months since Australia have played Test cricket and it seems
Mitchell Starc He spent part of that getting into the best shape of his life. He is 34 years old now. He shouldn’t look like a six-foot-tall brick wall. He also shouldn’t bowl at speeds that turn the red ball into a red blur. There has been an admission that in a five-Test series, no matter how fit they are, the big three Australian quicks may need to be managed more carefully, but now, with the series starting at the Perth stadium, where Starc averages 19 , then moving to Adelaide for a pink-ball Test, in which Starc averages 18.72, they could well prepare to take a break with the series already assured.
KL Rahul I just can’t get off this ride. He grew as an opening hitter, but had to make his debut in the middle order. Then he got that position at the top, but he started losing his stumps too often for anyone to stay in that position. A move back to the middle order, especially in white-ball cricket, would seem to indicate that that is where his future lies. One 86
against England in 4th place in January 2024, promoted this notion, but since then he has gone on a rampage to the point of losing his place in the team. Now he will open the batting in conditions that will not be in his favor against one of the best bowling attacks in the world.
Australia is as calm as can be, having placed its trust in McSweeney, whose ability to remain calm and collected has earned him the nickname “Buddha”.
Australia(probable): 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Nathan McSweeney, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (captain), 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood
India is, of course,
without your full-time captain and facing a small staffing crisis, which means they will go to Perth relying on several
fringe players. Padikkal (24), Jurel (23), Reddy (21) and Rana (22) are all in line for a place in the XI. It is possible that there is room for just one spin bowler and R Ashwin could move ahead of Ravindra Jadeja.
Having said that, the last time India had a staffing crisis in Australia, remember
what happened?
India (probable): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9 Harshit Rana/Prasidh Krishna 10 Mohammed Siraj/Akash Deep, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Although some unseasonal rain two days ago prevented the Perth Stadium youth team from getting the pitch to where they wanted, there has since been plenty of sunshine, hardening the surface and taking it to where it should offer excellent pace, bounce and load. Lead curator Issac McDonald and his team were
working for creating a “middle ground between bat and ball”.
“This is the toughest challenge. So I give this message to everyone that if you come and perform in this country, your level of cricket will increase and your level will continue to increase. So we as a team are focusing on putting ourselves in tough challenges so that we can become better and take our cricket upwards.”
India stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah on how he has motivated a somewhat young and inexperienced Indian team
“It’s weird, you know, it’s been pretty much the same side for the last two or three years. So, the introduction to the week is very normal, everything is very relaxed. , all the meetings, training, all that kind of stuff. We’ve done this before with the same people. So, yes, it’s just about reaffirming what we do very well.
Australia captain Pat Cummins wasn’t prepared for so much continuity, but he’s still happy about it
Source link
