Twitter world on a hunt as slow but eventful first day of the Pink Ball Test comes to an end

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.

ECB announces schedule of the much awaited County Championships

The England and Wales Cricket Board has finally confirmed the schedule of the much-awaited County Championships, albeit in a reshaped model, different from the one played in 2019 and also from the one Bob Billis Trophy played in 2020. The Championship begins with Essex, the defending champions beginning their title defense against Worcestershire at home on Thursday, April 8. On the same day, Somerset, the last year’s runner-up up will be at Lord’s once again as they face Middlesex in their season opener. All the 18 First Class counties have been divided into three groups of six each with each team playing five home and five away games. The top two teams from each group will then move to Division 1 and the others to division two and three respectively, based on their rankings in the group. The divisional matches will then begin on August 30 and the final of the championship would be played between the top two teams of division one on Monday, September 27. “We're all looking forward to the return of the County Championship in 2021 after a very challenging year in 2020,” ECB Managing Director of County Cricket, Neil Snowball said on the occasion of the announcement of the Championship. "We are also working hard with all 18 First-Class Counties to ensure that we are able to welcome the return of crowds safely next year and will continue to work closely with the Government and all relevant authorities," he added.

Kohli run-out leaves India in the lurch

Wickets tumbling at regular intervals meant India stayed behind the eight ball on day one, and they didn't do themselves any favours with Ajinkya Rahane selling Virat Kohli down the river.