Tim Paine still in pain on losing last Border Gavaskar Trophy against India

Australia's Test captain Tim Paine has revealed that the home Test series loss to India, suffered in 2018/19 season, still rankles with him. That series was played when the Aussie side was reeling under the absence of its two most prolific batsmen - Steve Smith and David Warner. The Indians took advantage and earned their first-ever away series win over the Australians.

Speaking to a radio channel days before India commence another tour of Australia, the wicketkeeper-batsmen said that he still recalls that loss with poignancy. The Aussie skipper also didn't see the absence of Smith and Warner as a plausible excuse for that defeat.

"Certainly for me, sitting back it still annoys me that we lost that Test series," Paine said in an interview with 2GB radio station. He added, "Whether we had Steve or David or not you don't want to be losing any Test matches or Test series you're involved in, so that still grinds me a little bit."

However, all set to go into another four-match contest against the Indian team, Paine feels his players will use that humbling experience to raise the level of their game and perform better.

"I know that it drives a lot of the guys that were involved in that and I certainly know Steve and David are looking forward to coming back and showing just how good they are as well," the 35-year old stated.

This time, not only would the Aussie skipper have the services of Smith and Warner, both of whom have scored heavily since their return to the Australian team, but also the prolific form of Marnus Labuschagne. Indeed, Paine is expecting his entire side to rally and produce a better collective effort.

"We're a much better all-round side. Not just adding Steve and David back into it, which is a hell of a lot of runs to add back into the side, but I think every other cricketer in that team has improved in the last 18 months as well and we've been playing some really good cricket," the incumbent skipper said in his statement.

While batting needs to be many notches up in this series for the hosts compared to earlier, its the bowling also there needs rectification. The veteran cricketer has acknowledged that it was the shambolic performance with the bat for his team that lost them the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood continue to be the leading bowlers for Australia with the new ball. But it will be Nathan Lyon whose flight and guile may prove too hot to handle.

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Tendulkar advices Indian bowlers to bowl fifth stump line to Steve Smith

The legendary Indian batsman who has been himself difficult to bowl to for hundreds of bowlers during his playing days reckons the Australian middle-order master Steve Smith too would be a tough nut to crack for the bowlers and hence a different ploy is needed to tackle him. Sachin advised the Indian bowlers to bowl the fifth stump line to Smith to get him to knick deliveries past the wicket. “Smith’s technique is unconventional...Normally, we tell a bowler in Test matches to bowl on and around off-stump or maybe fourth stump line. But for Smith, because he shuffles, maybe that line (of delivery) moves further away by four to five inches,” the Master Blaster said in an interview to PTI. “One has to aim between (imaginary) fourth and fifth stump for Steve to nick one. It’s just a mental adjustment of line, more than anything else,” he added. Tendulkar, 48, also said that he had read somewhere that Smith had said he was ready for the short-pitched stuff. In that scenario, the Mumbai born said that exploiting the fifth stump channel, on Australian pitches, which generally don’t offer as much swing like England, would be an ideal way to frustrate the New South Wales batter. “I think, he needs to be tested on and around that off-stump channel. Keep him on the back-foot and induce that early mistake. You can’t use saliva, so it’s a different case if wickets have a lot more life. I don’t know if they will have greenish wickets for the ball to do a little bit,” he said.

ICC to host decade awards soon; fans back Kohli to win Player of the Decade

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that it would host the ICC decade awards this year, dates of which would be revealed soon. The ICC’s official Twitter handle gave a teaser of it, by posting s tweet with the caption, “Soon”. The decade awards would most likely involve all the ICC annual awards categories which would be given to players for their performers throughout the decade i.e.- 2010-2020, also termed as a moving decade in cricket with respect to the number of changes and the tilting of the most dominating team position from Australia to that of India. Fans reacting to this announcement by the international body claimed that Indian all-format captain and batting maestro Virat Kohli will win the award for Player of the Decade hands down. Virat,32, started his cricketing career in 2008 but reached the peak only after the 2011 World Cup which Team India won by beating Sri Lanka in the finals under the captaincy of India’s best captain in terms of trophy wins- Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Since then Virat has been named Player of the Tournament in two ICC World Cups and has scored the most number of runs, both as captain and as a player. Unfortunately, he has not been able to win an ICC tournament as captain of the Indian team.

India will be 'smoked' 4-0 if Virat Kohli doesn't set the tone: Michael Clarke

The fact that Virat Kohli’s absence from the Test series in Australia may well have a huge impact on the outcome of the series is known to all and now a former Australian captain Michael Clarke has painted a grim picture of the Kohli-less Indian Test team. The right-hander has said that Virat Kohli will have a huge role to play in setting the tone in the limited-overs leg of the tour and if he fails to deliver on that front, there will be no bouncing back from the men in blue in the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane. He added that an unsuccessful series in white-ball format will land Indian team in deep trouble heading into the Test series and Australians will prove too strong for them. “These one-dayers and these Twenty20s is where Virat Kohli can really stand up and lead from the front. If India doesn’t have success in the One-dayers and the T20s, they are in deep trouble in the Test matches and they’ll get smoked 4-0, in my opinion. I think the tone he sets with this team will play a big role when he leaves, after the first Test match,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio. Apart from Virat Kohli, Clarke pinned India’s hopes on speedster Jasprit Bumrah who has been in terrific form throughout his career and was one of the brightest spots for the team on the last tour of Australia. He added that Bumrah has troubled opener David Warner in the past and he has the quality and pedigree to challenge the perpetually improving Steve Smith who has been a thorn in the Indians’ flesh in the previous series he played. He rated Bumrah as the best short-form bowler going around in the world along with an exceptional record in Test cricket. He suggested that Bumrah needs to be aggressive against the Aussie batting line which will make for a riveting contest in the Tests series starting December 17. “Opening bowler, probably the best short-form bowler in the world at the moment but his success in Test cricket has been exceptional as well. He’s quick, he’s got a really different action, so I think he needs to set the tone and be really aggressive to the Australian batters. Again, it’s not just about the wickets he takes, it’s how he bowls. He’s got Davey Warner’s measure at the moment, he’s got him out a number of times. Even to someone like Steve Smith, he’s got to use that short ball consistently and regularly, like Jofra Archer did to Steve Smith in the Ashes. They’ve got to take the Aussies on and those two players are India’s best two players to be aggressive to the Australians,” Clarke added on his outlook of the Indian team’s chances against Australia which has come back to ist full strength with the return of David Warner and Steve Smith who were missing from the team during the last series. The Indian team has been jolted by injury concerns to its marquee players such as Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma while Virat Kohli will return home for the birth of his first child. However, the absence of these star players will give the perfect opportunity to players sitting on the fringe for so long to come into reckoning and make a name for themselves.

Aus vs Ind | Rohit, Ishant ruled out of first two Tests: Report

Opener Rohit Sharma and pacer Ishant Sharma are all but ruled out of at least the first two Tests of the four-Tests match series against Australia scheduled to begin on December 17. However, their participation in the last two Tests of the series that are scheduled only in January 2021 will depend on how quickly the National Cricket Academy consider them match fit for Test matches and BCCI manages logistics. Out of the two, Ishant Sharma’s case in more precarious than Rohit’s as the pacer might as well run out of time for the Third Test as well as he will need a workload of four weeks to prepare for a Test match and keeping in mind the quarantine norms being imposed on people entering Australia, he will have to board the flight to Australia in order to spend six weeks before he can claim a place in the playing XI. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma is not very close to the full fitness deemed required to play a Test match and is likely to be cleared to travel down under only in the second week of December and adding the two weeks period of quarantine, he will be able to join the training of the Indian team only after December 22 which will rule him out of all the warm-up games and the first Test. The Selection Committee had named both Ishant and Rohit under the watchlist of the BCCI medical team and said that a call will be taken on the duo and Rohit was added to the Test squad while Ishant remained on the watchlist. The absence of both Ishant and Rohit along with the return of Virat Kohli will deplete the composition of the India team massively and it will open up holes in all the aspects of the game. Meanwhile, some unconfirmed media reports have claimed that the team management led by the captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri has asked for the inclusion of right-handed Shreyas Iyer in place of Rohit Sharma in case he misses out. Iyer has a strong record in domestic cricket to stake a claim in the Test squad and his presence in the white-ball squads will boost his chances of selection looking at the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.