Pakistan's A team registers strong win against New Zealand A

AUS vs IND: Ricky Ponting rings alarm bells, says tough for India to avoid 4-0

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has predicted a very hard time for the Indian team going forward in the four-match Test series after the hosts squandered all the advantage in the first test and lost the game after being dismissed on their historically lowest score. He has said that a clean sweep is looming large on the Indian team which has many holes to plug in a very short period of time, while the Australians will keep coming at them with their best. Ponting, who is also on the commentary panel of Channel 7 for the Australia-India series, said that the home side was able to open the old wounds in the Indian team and that they would need special performances from players to turn things around. He pointed out that the next test scheduled to start on December 26 in Melbourne holds the key for India’s resurgence in the series, as one more loss would really dent the confidence in the tourists’ camps and the Australians would not let them off the hook after that point. He "Now there are some serious wounds opened up. There could be a good chance (of a sweep). Let's hope we do get a result in Melbourne and if we do, I think India's going to find it really hard to bounce back and win a game,” Ponting told cricket.com.au. It’s not easy for teams, especially with so many inexperienced players like India have at the moment, to recover quickly from such a humiliation they got at the hands of Australia, but Ponting believes that how they will cope up to the debacle and come back at the MCG would tell a lot about their mental fortitude. He outlined the absence of Virat Kohli as another crucial factor that would halt the progress towards recovery from such a bad performance with the bat. “We'll learn a lot about them, won't we? With Kohli not being there as well there's almost no-one to pick them back up after a loss like that,” Ponting added in his post-match remarks to cricket.com.au. Ricky Ponting called for bringing more cushioning into the batting order of the tourists and batted for the return of Rishabh Pant who was excellent with the bat, in the last series down under. He also raised the point on Prithvi Shaw’s place in the playing XI at the top of the order, but said that the leadership group of the Indian team which would now be led by Ajinkya Rahane will have to work hard on lifting the spirits of the players, and just changing the playing XI would not solve that puzzle immediately as the Ausyralians who have exposed chink their armour would not be giving up on exploiting it against at the MCG and other tests that will follow in the next year. "They've got to make a couple of changes. Rishabh Pant has to be in that middle order. With Kohli not being there they've got to strengthen their batting, he's got to come in. "They'll look at Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order I'm sure but there's one thing to make selection changes there's another to lift the spirits back up again and make sure they're mentally right for the next challenge because the Australians are not going to go away now,” Ponting added. Australia, too, will have some selection headaches, but those will be due to the return of their first-choice player in David Warner and Ponting said that the hosts will have a lot less to be worried about while the tourists have a lot of aspects to ponder before the second test begins on December 26. Emerging talent Will Pucovski is likely to be fit for the second test, but Ponting believes he will have to wait as Joe Burns has earned another chance to secure his place by hitting a fifty in the winning cause in the second innings of the first test. With the return of Warner, Matthew Wade, who was shifted to open in Adelaide will return to the middle order, but that will be a tricky call for the home side as Cameron Green has looked sharp with the ball and has done nothing wrong to lose out his spot in the next test. If David's fit he comes straight back in … they've got a decision to make then on (Cameron) Green and (Matthew) Wade. That's the only obvious thing there. If both Pucovski and Warner are fit I think Will will have to wait again. On the back of Burns getting fifty they've got to keep going with him, that's the right call and that's fair enough,” Ponting added. India’s stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane will have a lot to ponder as both Kohli and Shami will head back home. Shami’s injury may well prove to be an excruciating one for the men in blue as they are already without Ishant Sharma in Australia and now all their bowling resources and responsibilities lie on the shoulders of Jasprit Bumrah.

AUS vs IND: Cricket Australia not giving hopes just yet on hosting 3rd Test in Sydney

Cricket Australia is holding its nerves as the news of new clusters of coronavirus cases are emerging from Sydney, where the third test between Australia and India is scheduled to be played from January 07 to 11. Earlier, the SCG had got the permission to host a full house crowd, but with the development of a new cluster in the city, the test match may well be cancelled or relocated altogether, let alone the number of spectators allowed into the ground. But, Cricket Australia is not giving up hopes on hosting the match at the SCG and although it had held rounds of crisis meetings, as per few reports, the board is reluctant as of now to move the match to other cities which are deemed a bit safer with respect to coronavirus crisis in the country. In case, CA decides to relocate the test, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground is reportedly next in line to host the New Year Test, after hosting the Boxing Day Test starting December 26. On Sunday afternoon, Cricket Australia announced its plans and said that the plan to hold the match in Sydney has not been scrapped as of yet. The third Vodafone Test is more than two-and-a-half weeks away, which provides us with time to assess the evolving public health situation on the northern beaches of Sydney. We have made no changes to our schedule and our preference remains to play the match at the Sydney Cricket Ground,” CA CEO Nick Hockley said. Hockley further said that the board is in consultation with stakeholders such as its own biosecurity team, governments, State & Territory Associations, the Australian Cricketers’ Association, along with other partners and officials at venues to finalise ways out in case of any issues with the scheduling due to Covid-19 cases. He also said that the board was aware of the challenges of hosting an international series and that it was preemptive with possible border closure and other effective measures to contain coronavirus and protect team members from contracting the virus. “Cricket Australia has developed a solid track record of delivery throughout this most challenging of summers and will continue to make appropriate and proportionate decisions in consultation with our biosecurity team, governments, State & Territory Associations, the Australian Cricketers’ Association, our partners and venues. CA has prepared for the possibility of COVID-19 hotspots and state border closures over the course of the summer and the protocols that we have put in place have been effective in ensuring the safety and success of the men’s and women’s domestic and international programs to date,” Hockley added. Hockley was enthusiastic about holding spectators at the MCG after a ‘difficult last year’ for the state due to Covid-19 outbreak, after the completion of a ‘brilliant’ test match at the Adelaide Oval. Although Cricket Australia is not giving up on hosting the third test in Sydney, he level of concerns it has on the situation of Sydney can be estimated by the fact that the duo of David Warner and Sean Abbot who were in Sydney ing ruled out of the first test were flown into Melbourne on a private jet by the board in order to preempt the border closure move by the New South Wales state officials. Australia are leading the Border Gavaskar series 1-0 after earning a dominating win over the Indians in Adelaide.

Mohammad Shami ruled out of remaining Test matches in Australia with fracture

After suffering the humiliation of getting bowled out for their lowest ever Test score, Indian cricket team's day only got more depressing with fast bowler Mohammad Shami getting ruled out from the rest of the series. The fast bowler suffered a fracture on his right arm which won't heal in time for him for the remaining matches. What caused the injury was a rising delivery from Pat Cummins which hit the bowler on his unprotected arm, forcing him to retire hurt, despite all the attempts of the team's medical staff to help the seamer continue his innings. This was despite Indian team being 36/9 and needing six runs to avoid their lowest ever Test score. At the post-match presentation ceremony and press conference, India captain Virat Kohli informed everyone that the fast bowler has gone for a scan and was unable to lift his arm at the time. The report from the scans turned out to be as bad as feared, further depleting an already depleted Indian side. When India won the 2018/19 series in Australia, they did that on the back of a sterling effort by their pace attack, consisting of Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah. Even before the start of the tour, Sharma was ruled out with an injury suffered during his time in Indian Premier League (IPL). With Virat Kohli going back to India and set to miss the remaining matches, Indian team's chances of making a comeback look very grim. Rohit Sharma is likely to be available for the last two matches of the series. But even that doesn't seem enough to make up for the three missing players - Kohli, Sharma, and Shami. In the absence of Shami, either Mohammad Siraj or Navdeep Saini are likely to get a go in the next Test. What is a stroke of sheer bad luck for Shami might turn out to be a golden opportunity for one of these two bowlers.

Virat's 'lack of intent' explanation for batting collapse is bizarre

Virat Kohli must be having a tough time dealing with the inexplicable events on day 3 of the first Test against Australia at Adelaide. After the horror day that saw his team get the unwanted distinction of getting bowled out for the lowest-ever Test total by an Indian team, he put the blame on 'lack of intent.' Kohli asserted that the reason for this shocking collapse was the fact that his team's batsmen weren't looking to score. Now, just look at the Indian batting card. Prithvi Shaw played just four deliveries before being dismissed. Cheteshwar Pujara and he himself were out on the eighth deliveries of their innings. Ajinkya Rahane's innings consisted of only four balls. Ravichandran Ashwin was out on his first ball. Wriddhiman Saha and Hanuma Vihari faced 15 and 22 deliveries. But do you expect them to show 'intent' when their team is in danger of getting bundled out for their lowest-ever score. On top of this, Mayank Agarwal was out on the very first ball he faced from Josh Hazlewood. Rahane was dismissed in the same over four balls later. So, what does Kohli expect his batsmen to do, start going for expansive drives and flamboyant pulls from ball one of their innings? That too, when the ball is still new and the bowlers are making it talk? Is that what he and other Indian batsmen did in the first innings. Kohli's 74 earlier in the match was characterised by immense patience and great restraint outside the off stump. He played many more leaves than one expects from him. It took him 180 balls to score that many runs. Pujara took 20 less for his 43. Was that also 'batting without intent?' If yes, then why did it succeed. On a day when Hazlewood and Pat Cummins exposed Indian batsmen's vulnerability thanks to just a bit of movement off the pitch, to blame the collapse on 'lack of intent' seems absurd. If Kohli feels Pujara shouldn't have gone eight deliveries without scoring a run, he should be reminded that the same Pujara, batting the same way, proved to be the difference between the two teams last time. Why not look at his own performance. Kohli hadn't scored a run in his first six deliveries. Then, he hit a boundary to get off the mark. But on the very next ball, he tried to play a big drive, full of 'intent' and gave a catch to gully. The fact that Indian team was all out for its lowest ever score is disappointing enough. But, the fact that the team's captain has made a mis-diagnosis is even more worrying. One wonders if that's what the coach Ravi Shastri thinks also. If so, worse times could be ahead for the side.