Category: Australia Cricket

Sam Konstas has continued his remarkable summer with a record-breaking knock on his BBL debut that will only enhance his chances of a Test call-up.

Denied a decisive triumph at the Gabba by miserable weather, Australia will endure an anxious wait regarding star batter Travis Head’s fitness leading into the Boxing Day Test.

Australian assistant coach Daniel Vettori has defended the team’s decision not to declare after India likely put a result out of reach in the third Test at the Gabba.

• Third Test, day four: Australia 445; India 252-9
• Australia checked by resilient batting and rain

It’s that time again. Not the time when the cricket enthusiasts are paying attention, because we always are – June in Barbados, August in Galle, whatever you’ve got. No, it’s the brief time either side of Christmas when the cricket is high profile enough that everybody outside our odd community also becomes vaguely aware it exists. “Who’s winning?” I’ve been asked twice this week, that dreaded question that gets lobbed from hallways over the backs of couches to torment those of us who know that nobody is ever winning a Test match, they have either won it or not won it. All we have to comfort us is our smug superiority; which is, granted, a consolation.

On the fourth day of Australia’s Test against India at Brisbane, there was a further delight: the game within a game. For the uninitiate, this contest would have looked dead. Australia on 445, India resuming in the morning 394 runs behind and four wickets down. Soon to be five, the captain Rohit Sharma an early departure. Combine the gulf in scores with the rain that had taken the match into its fourth day without completing its second innings, and there was no chance for India to get towards parity and stay in the contest.

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The third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is edging closer towards a stalemate after a courageous tenth-wicket partnership between Indian tailender Akash Deep and vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah frustrated the Australians on day four of the Gabba.

Sixers skipper Moises Henriques says Daniel Hughes’ latest injury setback is “very concerning”, but the veteran batter isn’t entirely sold on the idea of introducing a replacement system that would allow teams to sub on like-for-like players.

Visibly distressed England captain Ben Stokes suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury on Monday while bowling during the third Test against New Zealand in Hamilton.

Australia’s hopes of seizing control of the Border-Gavaskar Series in Brisbane were dealt a significant blow after India avoided the follow-on on a gripping day at the Gabba.

The Indian media has urged champion paceman Jasprit Bumrah to start holding his underperforming batters accountable, as they threaten to put his exceptional performances in Australia to waste.

The once dominant batter is experiencing a Groundhog Day which suggests a mind that is tired of finding solutions

A little over a decade ago, cricket writing became all about the Fab Four. Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, each starting to flourish as Test batters, each clearly the future for their respective national teams. We said they would all go on to captain their countries, and they did, as they kept racking up the hundreds, piling up runs, a kind of transnational pact in relentless quality. Always playing against one another, they were nevertheless joined in their own smaller team, urging one another on, opponents to mediocrity.

These days none is captain any more, with a range of endings to their tenures that span civility to acrimony to scandal. They are all still playing though, elder statesmen in teams that enjoy their presence. Each of them is still the biggest name, the one greeted by most applause when walking to the middle and prompting most excitement from opponents sending them back. None is the team’s best player any longer, but their reputations make it feel as though they are.

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Australia is in a dominant position in the Third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Brisbane but faces a task to beat the weather as well as India after another rain-marred day at the Gabba.

England have made a wretched start to their unrealistic chase of 658 to win the third Test on Monday, after a Kane Williamson century rammed home New Zealand’s advantage.

The Sixers are battling an early BBL injury crisis that has left two of their key players in severe doubt for Saturday’s Sydney Smash against the Thunder.

Jason Gillespie has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board in the wake of his stunning decision to walk away as the country’s Test coach.

Indian weapon Yashasvi Jaiswal flicked ball into the Australian huddle during his warm-up, and then was dismissed after playing an eerily similar shot off the bowling of Mitchell Starc.