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Pujara Backs Indian Pacers To Beat Warner Smith Strong Aussies

Pujara backs Indian pacers to beat Warner-Smith strong Aussies

India’s Mr. dependable Cheteshwar Pujara believes that the India pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah- Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami can repeat the magic of 2018-19 and bundle out Aussies even with the addition of two of their vastly experienced and most reliable batters in Steve Smith and David Warner.

"No doubt Smith, Warner, and Marnus Labuschagne are great players. But the good part about our current crop of bowlers is that most of them play together and our bowling unit will also not be very different from what it was in 2018-19," the Rajkot born said.

Further adding that Indian bowlers have already tested the blood on the Australian pitches Pujara said that that they know how to be successful here. “They have enjoyed success there in the past. They have their game-plans in place and if we can execute them well, they are capable of getting Smith, Warner, and Labuschagne out quickly,” he added.

Believing that Team India is still capable of repeating history created just about two years ago, the 32-year-old said, "If we can do what we have done in the past, I am sure we have every chance of winning the series again."

Acknowledging the fact that the Australian batting line-up will be a little stronger than what it was in 2018-19, Pujara, who is nearing 6000 runs in Test cricket (5840 runs) said, “But then victories don't come easy. If you want to win away from home, you need to work hard."

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Twitter reacts to new BBL rules in an absolute meme fest

The Big Bash League administrators announced today that a new set of rules have been included for the upcoming season of the league to make it more interesting and exciting for the fans. The fans on the other hand seemed to have had the funny side of the ‘rules’ as most of them found it comparable to Gully cricket in India. The memes related to the new rules have already started creating a buzz on the internet. While some Twitter users suggested the Big Bash authority to make some more new rules by taking inspiration from the unwritten gully cricket rulebook, others claimed that the same person who created the Dream XI advertisements during the IPL (in which Indian players were seen playing gully cricket and looking perplexed over the rules of the game) has advised the BBL authorities about the new rules. However, the best reaction came from former India Test batsman and currently the batting coach of IPL side Kings XI Punjab, Wasim Jaffer who used one of the popular memes, a dialogue from the OTT rage series- Mirzapur, to register his bewilderment about the new rules. Check out the new rules here

Aussie captain Tim Paine forced to self-isolate after fresh COVID outbreak

Australia Test captain Tim Paine has been forced to self isolate along with his teammates in domestic cricket after fresh COVID cases were reported in Adelaide, South Australia, where the Tigers had played there last game against Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield. "Tasmanian Tigers Sheffield Shield squad is self-isolating as we wait for further advice from Public Health," a Cricket Tasmania spokesman was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Players and staff have COVID-19 swab tests scheduled for later today,” she added. Although the number of cases in Adelaide has risen from four on Sunday to 17 on Monday, Cricket Australia is still hopeful that it would have no impact on the upcoming first Test match between Australia and India - a day/night affair with the pink ball, scheduled for 17 December at Adelaide Oval. "There is ongoing monitoring but that's the end of the story," a CA spokeswoman said. Tim Paine has however shown happiness over the fact that Indian captain Virat Kohli will not be available for the entire Test series, thereby giving Australia an opportunity to get back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which India won in 2018. "But I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a side of me that said I was slightly happy he won't be there for three of the Test matches,” Paine said about Kohli.

Tim Paine backs Joe Burns over Will Pucovski

Australian captain Tim Paine has backed experienced but out of form Joe Burns over young and in a scintillating form Will Pucovski to open with David Warner in the Test series against Australia. "Burnsy had a really good summer for us last year with David Warner, their partnership and relationship is a really important one for our team. They got us off to a number of good starts last year,” Paine was quoted as saying to Cricket Australia. The 35-year old further agreed that Burns is not in a kind of form that he and the Australian team would like him to be in, but he believes that there major chances of him making a strong comeback. "Burnsy hasn't been in the form that he would like or scored the runs he would like. But we know he does a good job. He averages close to 40 in Test cricket for Australia, which is a great effort opening the batting and I expect him to start this summer," Paine said. Although former captains such as Michael Clarke, Mark Taylor, and Kim Hughes have backed Pucovski, who has hit two consecutive double hundreds in three innings to make his debut against India, team selector and coach Justin Langer have gone with Burns as their first choice. However, things are likely to get clear when both Burns and Pucovski open together for Australia A in a three-day game that begins on December 6.

Ashwin helps KL Rahul practice to prepare for Australian bounce

The Indian team is leaving no stone unturned to prepare for the series they believe is one of their toughest challenges. After clearing the first round of COVID-19 testing, players have been exempted to train outdoors and prepare specifically for certain challenges they will face in the series against Australia. BCCI social media team has been very active in dishing out information for fans across the world as the players are behind closed doors to prepare for a widely anticipated series. In the latest video released by BCCI on Twitter, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and the wicketkeeper-batsman for the Limited overs series, KL Rahul were active in an unusual mode of practising. KL Rahul could well be practising to master the art of playing against tennis ball bounce which can be found in some of the pitches in Australia. Ashwin was serving Rahul balls that bounced in different directions and Rahul was seen repeating pull shots, one after another. The focus of Rahul was to keep the ball down and his wrist work was on full display in the video released by BCCI on Twitter. Earlier, Ashwin was seen finetuning his guile and flight of the ball. The off-spinner will meet a certainly more challenging Aussie batting line up than he bowled against during the last tour and he seems to be giving it all in order to be at the best against them. Indian team reached Sydney on November 12 straight from the IPL in the UAE and have been in quarantine since that time. The tour will officially begin with the ODI on November 27 followed by a three-match T20 series and four-match Test series.