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

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.

Virat Kohli uses 2018 England tour method to achieve success in Adelaide

Australia and England are two very different countries when it comes to the challenges they present to the batsmen. In UK, the challenge comes from the generous swing bowlers get while Down Under, it's the bounce which tests out a batsman's technique. In 2014, Virat Kohli endured the most miserable time of his career when he went through five Test matches in England without gettting even one half-century. But later that year, in Australia, he plundered over 500 runs in a four-match Test series with four centuries. However, Kohli's performances against Australia in the last two series have been well under-par by his own lofty standards. In the 2017 home series against the Aussies, the Indian captain didn't get even as far as 20 in the five innings he played. In the 2018/19 series in Australia, he scored arguably the best hundred of his career at Perth but otherwise, was overshadowed by Cheteshwar Pujara. It did seem that Australian bowlers had a better plan against Kohli than other bowlers. This plan got somewhat revealed in the first ODI of the series that preceded the Test contest on this tour. The plan was simple - bowl the fifth-stump line. This is the one area where Kohli's vulnerability was known years ago and was exploited by many. In fact, it was this line that caused his downfall in the 2018 England tour. However this line proved innocuous when the English bowlers were denied the help from swing-friendly conditions. Kohli's mountain of runs against the same team at home in the 2016 home sereis was testament to that. So, why did Australia succeed with the same strategy? This was because of a slight adjustment by the Australians to this strategy. In England, the ball swings, hence bowlers in that country natuarally bowl a fuller length. This length proves disasterous in Indian conditions, as Jimmy Anderson and his colleagues found out in India. Australian bowlers, on the other hand, having been brought up on hard pitches, bowl shorter, what is called back-of-a-length. The Aussie bowlers realized that pitching the ball up, even on a fifth-stump line would allow Kohli to use his driving prowess to great effect. So, they combined this line with a shorter length, to take away Kohli's drives and make him look for more ambitious shots. It worked in the first ODI of the three-match series last month. Kohli would have understood that this would be the mode of attack that Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins would employ in the only Test of the series he will play. To counter that, Kohli went back to the strategy that allowed him to conquer what many regarded as his final frontier - England. In 2018, before the 5-match Test series in England, all the hype was about the Anderson vs Kohli contest. The big question that everyone asked was: can Kohli overcome Anderson's skills? The Indian batting maestro did that with aplomb. He scored more than 500 runs and avoided, if narrowly, getting out to Anderson even once. When asked how he turned the tables on England after that ghastly tour of 2014, he said it needed getting over his ego. On field, it meant being uncharacteristically patient and leaving deliveries on the dreaded fifth-stump line alone all day. This made him successful, though, it also meant that he didn't dominate Anderson but showed him great respect. Now, this wouldn't have been easy for the fiery and often intemperate Indian captain. He must have needed to dig really deep to get over the urge of trying to go after Anderson and prove his superiority. But by ignoring the short-term but dangerous pleasure of hitting boundaries against his English adversary, he achieved the ultimate goal of scoring big runs in England. On day 1 of the first Test against Australia at Adelaide, Kohli used the same method to achieve success, though it was cut short by a run-out. For a batsmen whose breathtaking strokeplay has earned millions of admirers around the world, Kohli showed incredible restraint and used the leave outside the off-stump to great effect. Kohli's 74 took an unusually long 180 balls. This was a great example of why Test cricket is the greatest sport in the world and way better than the ersatz spectacle of T20 cricket. It doesn't just depend on your skill but your personality as a whole. To succeed in Test cricket, for a decent period of time, one needs to use the strength of his character, not just skill and talent. The evolution of Kohli from an intemperate hothead to a victor over his ego is the best example of the greatness of this format and this sport. It's also a testament to the grit and determination that the 32-year old genius has shown in his cricketing journey.

Inside out: Under pressure Rahane learns hard lessons as India lose hard-earned advantage

How bad would it feel to run out the best batsman in your team when he is well set for a big one on the pitch where he had to work really hard to settle down? How bad would it feel to be dismissed in the first over of a crucial phase you saved your wicket for and worked so hard to reach that point? How bad would it feel to be in the position when you know you have been outsmarted even before the umpire ruling so? and to make the case worse, how terrible would it be to face all of this in a span of 30 minutes on a cricket pitch? Well, Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane had to swallow all of that while batting in the fag end of the first day’s play in Adelaide. It seemed under India’s control till the last ball of the 77th over when Rahane pushed a delivery from Nathan Lyon towards and called Kohli for a quick single, only to pull back a bit too late and that left Virat Kohli helplessly at halfway down the pitch. Rahane had run out the most prolific batsman of his team with his poor calling and the reaction he gave after Kohli’s departure was telling of the impact he had taken of that poorly-judged single. Now, the goal was to combat the upcoming threat of the new ball for which both he and Kohli had worked hard to pass through. After the failure of Rahane the batting partner and a team man, for which he is always credited, it was now the turn of Rahane the batsman to take the brunt of Starc’s inswinging thunderbolt. As it turned out, he was beaten by pace and it looked like he was taken aback from a delivery off Starc when the situation and the condition of the ball should have made it obvious for him that the ball will swing, more so when Starc was bowling it at very fuller length. When Rahane came out to bat after the fall of Cheteshwar Pujara who had batted with typical resistance, India were not in a precarious position but an instant fall of either him or Kohli would have landed India in such position. But, Rahane too, like other senior batsmen before him, showed restraint and did not allow any chance to the Australians, especially outside the off stump. He mistimed a hook shot but the risk was a bit more calculative than an attempt of driving through the cover. Rahane got off the mark only on his 11th ball and took 28 balls to hit his first boundary that came only through a long half volley from Lyon and Rahane was up to the task and drove it through cover for a four to get going in his innings. Rahane has been a core member of the leadership group in the team management and more often than not, Virat Kohli backs him for his mental toughness. Rahane rose through the ranks in the team on the back of crucial knocks he had plagued on the first round of overseas tour in the 2013-14 season. He scored runs all across the world including a 96 in South Africa and dominating centuries in New Zealand, Australia and England. In that season of long overseas tours, Rahane leapfrogged to become the best batsman in the team. When the domestic season started in 2015 under the fulltime leadership of Virat Kohli against South Africa in 2015, Rahane was not to miss out and scored two centuries against the Proteas in the Delhi test to stake a claim as one of the most important pillars of the batting. It seemed as if the Indian team had found a solid middle-order batsman who could master both domestic as well as overseas conditions. But, runs started to dry up for Rahane and he started looking a shadow of his former self. He was handed out a reality check when he was dropped for the first two Tests on the tour of South Africa but collective failures of batsmen in the first two testes allowed him space to get back into the team based on his performances on the last round of overseas tours preceding the tours done in 2018-19 season. However, Rahane failed to live up to the expectations and could not quite match his high scores that he was able to score on his first overseas tours. In the last test tour of New Zealand, Rahane failed in a yet again test series and aggregated as low as 91 runs in four innings. Although all batsmen in the line up struggled on that tour, Rahane was expected to do better as he had scored a century in the 2014 series. The jury is out on Ajinkya Rahane and the ongoing series will be a litmus test of both his batting and mental toughness which he will need in abundance if he has to turn things around in his batting and leading the side to defend the Border Gavaskar Trophy as Virat Kohli is set to hand over the mettle to him to take on Australia. What happened in Adelaide today was a cricketing mistake and Rahane will move on from that very quickly. But, he would do both himself and the team a great disservice if he does not tighten up his own game and get back into the groove to redeem his 2013-14 avatar to become the best batsman in the lineup. A lot will be riding on Rahane’s shoulder and interestingly, another failure as a batsman may well force him on the verge of exclusion from the team if not the squad.