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The Ashes Pat Cummins Allowed To Go Home Cricket Australia Refutes South Australia Govts Charge

The Ashes | Pat Cummins allowed to go home, Cricket Australia refutes South Australia govt's charge

Australia Test captain Pat Cummins, who got ruled out of the ongoing Day-Night Ashes Test in Adelaide has been granted permission to head home in New South Wales despite being a close contact of a Covid-19 infected person, Fox Sports reported.

Also, Cricket Australia has categorically denied the charge levied by the South Australia government that the board decided to rule the skipper Pat Cummins out of the second Ashes Test on its own and without consultation with the Health Department.

CEO Nick Hockely said that the board went through a quick discussion with the health department and decided to exclude Cummins from the Day-Night Test only after getting the confirmation of him being a close contact.

“I think the Premier’s reference is that normally they go through quite a detailed process of contact tracing,” Hockley told SEN radio. “The work we did was engage SA Health immediately. And we needed to understand the situation in very (quickly).

“We called an emergency meeting with our contacts at SA health and they confirmed Pat would be treated as close contact, so it was very much a collective decision and we had that confirmation through from SA Health. We knew (Cummins was a close contact) ahead of time through our discussions with SA Health.”

Cummins’ departure to New South Wales has all but cleared the way for his return to the Australia Test side for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG starting December 26. In his absence, Steve Smith lead the Test side after a gap of four years and Michael Neser got the Baggy green to bowl alongside Mitchell Starc and Jhye Richardson.

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WATCH: A sneak peek into Team India's journey from Mumbai to Johannesburg

The Indian team has reached South Africa and the BCCI has released a video giving an insight about their journey from Mumbai to Johannesburg. “From Mumbai to Jo'Burg! Capturing #TeamIndia's journey to South Africa ,” the video was captioned. India and South Africa will lock horns with each other in three Tests which will be followed by as many ODIs. The Test series is scheduled to begin on December 26 in Centurion while the first ODI will be held on January 19, 2022 in Paarl. Earlier, there were rumours going around that Test skipper Virat Kohli might not feature in the ODIs but the right-handed batsman cleared the air and said that he is totally available for the fixtures. "I was and I am available for selection all this time," Kohli said in a press conference. “You shouldn't be asking me this question honestly, you should ask the people who are writing about the things based on their sources because as far as I am concerned, I was always available.” There was a tweak in the leadership group after Rohit Sharma was handed over the ODI captaincy and was named the vice captain of the Test side as well. Unfortunately, the opener will miss the Test series due to a hamstring injury.

The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 2: Ricky Ponting predicts a dismissal from commentary box, again

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is known for having eyes of detail and he has used that quality to best effect while calling the game on air. He has been very successful in foreseeing the onset of dismissal or set of events while obviously dissecting correctly the takeaways of the game in a much insightful way than it appears for the wider public. His attention to detail was at the forefront yet again as he could predict tactic England were trying to employ against Cameron Green as soon as the all-rounder walked out to bat. He has followed Green’s batting stance closely and predicted that England would bowl fuller and straighter to him because he stands with an open front foot in fear of getting trapped LBW. He was making this assessment as Ben Stokes was running in to bowl the third delivery of his 16th over and on cue, he delivered a full ball that sneaked through the gap between bat and pad to bowl him. Ponting achieved a similar feat at the start of the last Australian summer when India were playing the Day-Night Test against the home side and he could foresee Mithcell Starc’s plan of action against opener Prithvi Shaw. Then, he had predicted that Shaw was a candidate to get bowled through the gat as bat used to come from the gully angle creating a big gap between bat and pad and Starc delivered exactly the same result vindicating his assessment.

South Africa Test series looming, BCCI avoids 'hasty decision' to solve fuss around Virat Kohli

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is not looking to heat up the controversy surrounding sacking of Virat Kohli as India’s ODI captain and his press conference any further and is willing to deal the issue amicably considering a high-stake Test series scheduled in couple of weeks time, PTI reported. The report suggested that the board has pondered various options to sort out the issues that have put the Test skipper Kohli and the president Sourav Ganguly in a virtual face off but they are unlikely to take any “hasty decision” to solve the issue. “Expert opinion was taken on how to deal with the sensitive matter as it also involves the respect of a president’s office. The BCCI knows that a Test series is round the corner and any hasty decision or statement from them could affect the morale of the team,” PTI quoted an unnamed BCCI official as saying. Assumptions were rife since Kohli came out in press conference and countered almost all the claims made by Ganguly and media reports. Various media reports suggested that Kohli was seeking rest during the ODI series in South Africa while Ganguly had claimed a conversation with Kohli where he asked him to stay on T20I skipper. Kohli refuted both the claims that ratchet winds of speculations about misocommunication between BCCI top brass and Kohli over the major issues such as leadership chnage.

The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 2: Marnus Labuschagne rides on wave of luck to score first Ashes ton

Marnus Labuschgane continued his dream run of form at home and piled on his sixth Test century early on the second day of the Day-Night Test in Adelaide. He took as many as 287 balls and brought up a resilient century to keep England at bay albeit facing some spells of tough pace bowling. It was Labuschgane’s slowest and first hundred in an Ashes series and he doubled down on his batting efforts from the Gabba where he missed out on a century. He walked out to bat when Stuart Broad had snapped up Marcus Harris very early in the game but he once again stitched a big partnership with David Warner to take the game away from the grasp of England. Australia have gone past the 235-run mark early on the second day and have lost just two wickets in the form of Warner and with Harris with Labuschagne and Steve Smith holding their ground solidly, they would be eager to bat big in the first innings. For England, the duo of James Anderson and Broad well both with the first and second new ball but lack of incisive edge from Ollie Robinson and Chris Woakes hurt their prospects.