Category: India Cricket

Following on from reviews of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, here are a few more moments to savour

By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog

Such is the volume of Test cricket played by England that perspective is hard to discern – great wins soon displaced by great defeats, social media heroes elbowed out by social media villains (often the same player) and generational talents suddenly condemned as also-rans. Cricket, with its statistical tables, sortable databases and multiple formats, lends itself to trite hierarchies – take your pick of rankings, averages or aggregates as the basis for a row.

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• Kohli had shouldered Australian teenage debutant
• India batsman accepts match referee’s sanction

India’s Virat Kohli has been fined 20% of his match fees following a clash of shoulders with the debutant Australia opener Sam Konstas in the Boxing Day Test between the sides in Melbourne on Thursday.

Kohli was booed by the crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after bumping into Konstas as the the 19-year-old batter walked down the pitch for a chat with his opening partner Usman Khawaja at the end of the 10th over on the opening day of the fourth Test.

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• India declined to send team to host nation Pakistan
• Final to move from Lahore to Dubai if India qualify

India’s matches at the 2025 Champions Trophy will be held in Dubai, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday.

Pakistan, the tournament hosts, selected the United Arab Emirates as a neutral venue for India’s fixtures with the team not able to play matches in Pakistan due to political tensions.

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As a Test debut looms on cricket’s biggest stage, Australia’s 19-year-old opener says he is excited to test his skills against India’s fast bowling maestro

Sam Konstas won’t overload on watching videos of Jasprit Bumrah ahead of his likely Boxing Day Test debut, as he prepares to face India’s pace maestro for the first time.

Konstas blasted 107 from 97 balls against India three weeks ago, helping open the door for his call-up to Australia’s Test squad in place of Nathan McSweeney.

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• 19-year-old expected to be named for fourth India Test
• Top order has largely mis-fired in opening three matches

Sam Konstas is in the frame for a whirlwind Test debut after being called into Australia’s squad for the fourth match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

AAP understands the 19-year-old batting prodigy was notified on Friday that he would be named in Australia’s squad that afternoon.

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• Australia 445 & 89-7; India 260 & 8-0 at the Gabba
• Play ends early on day five after hosts suffer top-order collapse

First of all, you have to say “fair play” to Australia for making a game of it. Losing some time out of day five of the Brisbane Test was already inevitable with the weather forecast. But when most of the first session disappeared due to lightning precautions and then rain, it seemed sure that any hope of a contest had gone too. Instead Australia came back from an early lunch break looking to smash quick runs, then set India 275 to win in 54 overs. It was a great set up, until rain returned to end the fourth innings just after it had begun.

Looking past that boldness, though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the helter-skelter of Australia’s second innings was a boon to India. Another crop of wickets for the visiting bowlers, and another failure apiece were chalked up next to the names of Australia’s specialist bats.

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• Australian quick sent for scans after bowling just one over on Tuesday
• Scott Boland likely replacement for Melbourne and Sydney Tests

Josh Hazlewood’s home Test summer is feared over after the quick suffered a calf strain that is expected to rule him out of both Melbourne and Sydney. Hazlewood was sent for scans on Tuesday after sending down just one over at the Gabba, after hurting his right calf in the warm up before play.

Scans have since confirmed a strain, leaving Australia with just two frontline quicks for the rest of the Brisbane Test. “He is likely to miss the remainder of the Test series. A squad replacement will be made in due course,” Cricket Australia confirmed in a statement.

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• Third Test, day three at the Gabba: Australia 445; India 51-4
• Play interrupted throughout day as Australia press for victory

Brisbane’s big wet looms as India’s best chance of saving the third Test against Australia, after the tourists slumped to 51-4 after a miserable day three for them at the Gabba.

In between seven rain delays, one aborted start and an early finish due to bad light, Australia were all out for 445 before Mitchell Starc stamped his authority with the ball.

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• Third Test, day two: Australia 405-7 v India at the Gabba
• Smith and Head both hit tonnes for hosts

Steve Smith, Gabba, century. Not a surprising combination of words, for a player with a 10th of his career runs at the venue, one decent innings away from taking that number past 1,000. More surprising given the way that contemporary Smith has been grinding away for a long while without notable success, an engine revving that won’t turn over.

His hundred on day two of the third Test against India on Sunday was his fourth in Brisbane, and could not have been more different to the other three. India in 2014 and Pakistan in 2016 were breezy, boundaries flying, Smith in purple pomp. England in 2017 was a masterpiece of concentration, 326 balls faced, striking at barely 40, batting eight and a half hours to hold together an innings that was slipping away. Never had he worked harder, yet even at its toughest, it still never seemed that he would actually get out. He was so good that success seemed preordained.

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• Third Test day one: Australia 28-0 v India at the Gabba
• Rohit Sharma elects to field before rain stops play

Cricket writer’s challenge: discuss bowling first in a Brisbane Test without referring to Nasser Hussain. Better to fail at that challenge in the first line and get it out of the way. England’s former captain has copped an unfair amount of grief for his decision at the toss in 2002. Captains who bat first and lose badly never get criticised for making that decision.

England of that era were likely to be thumped by an epochally great Australian side no matter what they chose. Facing Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, and Jason Gillespie, they were bowled out in the fourth innings for 79. Facing those three first up would not likely have helped.

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• Australia seal thumping victory early on day three
• Travis Head player of the match as Siraj feud simmers

26th over: India 134-6 (Nitish 20, Ashwin 1) That was the dream start for Australia, and with Pant surely goes any hope India have of making this match anything bordering on a contest. Smith really did make that catch look simple, despite ending up taking it in front of first slip. He moved so early and got into a perfect position to get both bucket hands safely around the fast moving ball.

Cummins opens from the River End and Nitish gets the scoreboard moving with a glance down to fine leg. There’s a little extra bounce for the Australian skipper, but both batters negotiate it safely to rotate the strike.

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• Words exchanged following wicket on day two of second Test
• Indian quick claims Head lied in post-match interview in Adelaide

Travis Head says he won’t allow accusations of lying from India firebrand Mohammed Siraj to ruin Australia’s second Test triumph.

The batsman has admitted swearing at Siraj during their tense flashpoint at Adelaide Oval on Saturday. Siraj gave century-maker Head a send-off and the Australian responded with some choice words.

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• Fast bowler to miss clash with India in Adelaide due to side strain
• Uncapped Sean Abbott and Brendan Doggett called into squad

Australia’s bid to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has taken another hit after Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the second Test with a side strain.

Already sweating on the fitness of Mitch Marsh, Australia suffered a further blow on Saturday when medical staff put Hazlewood on ice for the day-night Test in Adelaide with a sore left side. The injury is not thought to be serious and Hazlewood will remain around the Test squad ahead of the third Test in Brisbane.

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• Allrounder makes up 14-man group for second match against India
• Marsh pulled up sore after series-opening defeat in Perth

Australia have called Beau Webster into their squad for the Adelaide Test, as cover for allrounder Mitch Marsh.

Webster was officially added to Australia’s squad on Thursday with a 14-man group to now assemble in Adelaide on Monday.

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India’s supreme fast bowler destroyed the top order in Perth and the hosts have little time to avoid a second Test repeat

Test cricket is supposed to be cruel. This is a key aspect of its beauty. This thing hurts. It will seek out your weakest points and then very carefully and skilfully gouge its nails into the wound. But is it meant to be this cruel?

There was something tender, painful and even a little disturbing about what Jasprit Bumrah did to Marnus Labuschagne during the first Border-Gavaskar Test in Perth. In the space of 23 Bumrah deliveries Labuschagne was dropped, hit in the ribs, beaten five times, left completely scoreless, and basically de-cricketed, reduced to a series of strange, formless movements, stabbing at the ball like an under-gardener swatting midges in the dark.

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