AUS vs IND: Twitter errupts as Indian fielding drops the bar in Adelaide

Yuvraj, Sreesanth named in list of probables for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

It is going to be an interesting start to the Indian domestic season if famous names like Yuvraj Singh and S. Sreesanth get picked in their respective state squads for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which begins on 10th January. While both of them have been picked in the list of probables of their respective states, their road to the squad is entirely different. Yuvraj, 39, needs permission from BCCI to be allowed to play in the domestic competition as he has already played in foreign leagues after obtaining NOC from BCCI. According to the BCCI rules, no domestic cricketer can be allowed to play in the IPL or domestic tournaments, if he has played in any foreign league. Talking about Yuvraj’s case, Puneet Bali, the secretary of Punjab Cricket Association said,” No he hasn't been (named in the squad) because we are just waiting for the nod from the BCCI to come yet," Bali said. "He has been selected in the camp, but it is subject to approval and confirmation from BCCI." For Sreesanth to be named in the final squad, he along with the other 25 members of the squad which includes the likes of Sanju Smason, Robin Uthappa, Jalaj Saxena, and Basil Thampi would undergo a preparatory camp to be held from December 20 to 30, before the final call is taken on selection. Sreesanth last played professional cricket in 2013 before being banned by BCCI for spot-fixing. his ban ended in September this year. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy would be hosted in seven cities with league games in Bengaluru, Indore, Vadodara, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai while the knockouts being played in Ahmedabad's Motera Stadium. List of Kerala probables: Robin Uthappa, Jalaj Saxena, Sanju Samson, Vishnu Vinod, Rahul P, Mohammed Azarudeen, Rohan Kunnumel, Sachin Baby, Salman Nizar, Basil Thampi, S Sreesanth, M D Nideesh, KM Asif, Basil NP, Akshay Chandran, Sijomon Joseph, Midhun S, Abhishek Mohan, Vatsal Govind, Anand Joseph, Vinoop Manoharan, Midhun PK, Sreeroop, Akshay KC, Rojith, Arun M. Punjab probables: Mandeep Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Salil Arora, Gitansh Khera, Ramandeep Singh, Sanvir Singh, Karan Kaila, Rahul Sharma, Krishan Alang, Sandeep Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Ikjot Singh, Naman Dhir, Abhishek Gupta, Himanshu Satyawan, Gurkeerat Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Anmol Malhotra, Aarush Sabharwal, Abhinav Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Mayank Markande, Baltej Singh, Siddharth Kaul, Barinder Sran, Gurnoor Singh, Harjas, Abhijit Garg, Kunwar Pathak

Mathews to miss South Africa tour as Sri Lanka announce Test squad

Sri Lanka Cricket on Thursday announced the Test squad for the upcoming South Africa tour as well as the much anticipated England visit to the island nation. The team would be captained by experienced opener Dimuth Karunaratne while no person as such was named as his deputy. Stalwart all-rounder and the most experienced active Sri Lankan batsman, Angelo Mathews will miss the South Africa tour, however, he will be available for the England series which will take place in late January. A 22 member strong squad is full of brimming young talents, and also has some experienced hands in the form of Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, and Suranga Lakmal. In the batting department, it has got a good mix of left and right with captain Karunaratne, Kusal Perera, Niroshan Dickwella, and Thirimanne along with young gun Minod Bhanuka playing as left-handers. In terms of right-handers, the team has experienced Chandimal, flamboyant Kusal Mendis, Oshada Fernando, and Dhananjaya De Silva. The bowling is also filled with a good mix of pacers and spinners as apart from Akmal, speedsters Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera are back and so is all-rounder Dasun Shanaka. Alongside them, the spin duo of Lasith Embuldeniya and Wanindu Hasaranga will also play crucial roles alongside spinning all-rounder Dilruwan Perera. Other pacers in the team include Vishwa Fernando and Kasun Rajitha while there are three players who have been picked for the first time in the Test squad and it includes the youngsters Santhush Gunathilake and Dilshan Madushanka alongside Asitha Fernando, who has made his Sri Lanka debut, but has played just one ODI.

AUS vs IND | Pujara rues lost advantage, but banking on lower order to last long

When Cheteshwar Pujara walked out to bat at the Adelaide Oval today it was not a new experience for the right-hander who has had the experience of bailing his team out of trouble times on so many occasions and neither it was a situation that he is not expecting on thing long Test series, although he would be hoping he does not have to do it more often. He had to come out almost as an opener and had to combat Mitchell Starc who was looking to make amends about his lack of wicket-taking deliveries in the last series between the sides in 2018-19. The effect of Starc’s brilliance with the new pink ball was evident on Pujara who kept on feeling for the ball as he was not able to decipher the deliveries going away from him and coming into him. The last innings Pujara had played against Australia, it was a marathon inning at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a series where he almost single-handedly tired all the Australian bowlers out with immense grit and perseverance of disciplined batting. After a brief period of nervousness at the crease, Pujara was back to where he left off in Sydney two years back and his signature shots- leave outside the off stump and dead bat to full balls on stumps started coming in perfectly to calm the nerves in the middle and army be also in the dressing room. But, unlike the last time, the Aussies had a plan in their mind and they positioned a leg gulley and lured him to glance balls off his hips towards fine leg. Pujara was almost trapped when he hit one shot but was quick to regain focus and never repeated the shot and literally nullified the game plan set by the hosts. Needless to say, he was patient and waited for the bowlers to err in length and bowl too full completely in his arc for his bat to come down straight, but with soft hands, eliminating any threat of leading or outside edge. He started to open up when Tim Paine introduced Nathan Lyon and ultimately after a long game of cat and mouse where Pujara was dancing down the track and coming back right into the crease to be as decisive as he could against Lyon, he was done in by a delivery that bounced sharply from a length Pujara had hoped it would not. Pujara’s wicket was a costly loss for India but the fall of Kohli and followed by twin wickets of Rahane and Vihari ultimately squandered the advantage that his hard work at the crease would have provided. Pujara too was not to miss on admitting that the tourists had let the hosts off the hook from a situation they could have dictated terms in the game. Although Pujara rued the late collapse, he has not given up hopes of a good score in the first innings and has put his faith behind Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha and the bowlers to put together a solid performance on the morning of the day 2. "We are just six down and Ash [Ashwin] can bat, Wriddhi [Saha] can bat and even our lower order will try and contribute as many runs as possible. So we still have a very good chance of getting close to 275-300. If the lower-order bats well, you never know - we can get 350 also. Yes, there was a stage where we were in a dominating position but after losing Virat and Ajinkya they have a little bit of advantage. But I still feel we are evenly placed in this Test match,” Pujara said in the virtual press conference organised after the end of the first day’s play. Pujara was involved in two critical partnerships on the first day and at the end of the day, he said that as a batting unit, the Indian team had focussed on stitching big partnership in order to hand Australia advantage early on the first day of the series. "The most important thing we discussed was building a partnership. When you have a big partnership - if it's more than 50 runs or if it's close to 100 runs - it always sets a proper platform for other batsmen to put our team in a commanding position. When I had a partnership with Virat, when Ajinkya came in - both of them were cruising and there was a time where we were 190 for 3 (188 for 3). I felt that was a position that we wanted to be in,” Pujara added. Pujara reemphasized the value of discipline while batting and said that all batsmen including himself had modelled their batting to play according to the merit of balls and that the Australian bowlers bowled tight line and lengths throughout the day to deny them easy runs. But, Pujara reiterated that if lower order can sustain for a bit of time in the morning of day 2, India can reclaim the position of ascendency in this test. "But this is what Test cricket is all about. When you lose a couple of wickets, the opposition has a little bit of advantage. But again when we score some runs tomorrow morning, we'll be in a commanding position. So you just have to respect this format and we just trying to do that when we were in the middle. Play according to the merit of the ball, and whatever runs we could get out of both sessions. Our game plan was very simple - if we get any loose ball then we'll try and play our shots but if they are bowling in good areas you just have to respect that," Pujara added. Pujara batted for 160 balls for his vigilant 43 runs and said that being patient for loose balls forms a critical aspect of batting on pitches where bowlers get assistance and especially when they come up against bowling lineup such as the Australian’s. He emphasized the very old belief about test cricket that preserving wickets in the early two sessions of a game when bowlers are raring to go against batsmen prove to be a determining factor. "When it happens to be a wicket like today, where there's a lot of help for bowlers, then it's important to be patient. The bowler has the leverage, where he can also bowl by experimenting a bit. If you have a total of less than 200 then the team struggles a lot overseas. The team's target is often to reach 250-300 or beyond 300. For that, the starting two sessions are very important in Tests and it's necessary to bat with patience because the bowler is fresh, the wicket is fresh, and you can't play too many shots," Pujara added on the value of his approach of batting in Tests. Pujara was the main man who carried the mettle of thwarting Australian bowlers in the last series, and if the temperament and discipline he showed on the first day of the series are anything to go by, he’s in for yet another series of attritional brilliance.

Twitter world on a hunt as slow but eventful first day of the Pink Ball Test comes to an end

With the first match of the much-anticipated Test series between Australia and India beginning with the Pink Ball, day/night Test in Adelaide, the Twitterati, true to their name and reputation were up and ready early morning with their weapons of destruction as well as adulation. The first victim of the Twitter world was Indian opener Prithvi Shaw who went out on the second delivery of the game. His technique was all over the place for a swinging yorker-length from Mitchell Starc and the people pounced on his faulty display. Next in the line was a heap of praise for Cheteshwar Pujara for occupying the crease and frustrating the Aussie bowlers, even though a pitch-perfect in swinger from Kangaroo vice-captain Pat Cummins had already taken down Mayank Agarwal. Pat Cummins was brilliant throughout the innings as he kept on bowling the troubling length throughout the day. Pujara, in total, played 160 balls for his 43 and occupied the crease for 48.2 overs. His partnership with skipper Kohli was the one that gave India the hope of fighting back. Another reason for Pujara being in the mix of Twitter wars was the way Shane Warne, Aussie great and commentator with Fox Cricket for this game, brought up the topic of how Pujara during his time at Yorkshire was being referred to as 'Steve’. This was being discussed at a time when one of Yorkshire's former skippers Azeem Rafiq has filed a case against the club for racial discrimination and has also named the incident involving Pujara as an example of how Asian cricketers were being subjected to racial slurs by being called ‘Steve’. Warne was slammed by the Twitter user base for his insensitive commentary. However, Nathan Lyon, as always got the better of him a record 10th time in Test cricket. The Indian captain Virat Kohli made a fine 74 runs off 160 balls before getting run out in one of the most bizarre fashions when both vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and he were standing in the middle of the pitch. So, instead of the talk being about his 74, it was all about the runout, more so because, Rahane, after getting Kohli run out, also got out himself in a span of just a few minutes. After Rahane and Kohli, Hanuma Vihari too departed soon and it is Wriddhiman Saha and all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin that are occupying the crease, having added 27 runs for the 8th wicket so far. India will begin tomorrow morning at its overnight score of 233-6.