Shubman Gill and Mohammad Siraj to debut for Team India in Boxing Day Test

AUS vs IND | 2nd Test Preview: 'Shocked' Indians aiming to move on from Adelaide debacle

The last time Australian captain Tim Paine walked out leading his team at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, it was the start of a match where he had to endure the never lasting resilience of the Indian batting line up in the first two days from behind the stumps, followed by astute brilliance of the opposition bowling attack from the dressing room. The story seems to be turning on its head now and as Australia crushed India in the first Test at Adelaide, it was now Paine’s turn to rejoice the oy of complete annihilation of India batting on the third day of the Test, again from behind the stumps. That Border Gavaskar series was the last one where Australia showed signs of a weakened team and with the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, the old glories were restored, with every passing game and series. Bowlers grew in confidence and Tim Paine went on to achieve something as a captain of the Australian team that even Ricky Ponting was not fortunate enough to achieve over a much more prolonged period of captaincy and it is retaining the Ashes in England. India were a challenger but with the current Australian team appeared to be much better than the one they defeated two years back and if the team management had any iota of doubt about it, the morning session of the third day of the first Test would have awakened the Indian team management from their deep slumber, if they were in there at the first place. Now, the challenge for India, who were already missing Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma as their two frontline players, has gone only bigger and it may turn insurmountable as Mohammed Shami too has been ruled out due to fracture in the wrist and has returned India along with the captain Kohli who has embarrassed on his paternity leave. Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane has multiple crises to deal with and more questions than answers as he is getting ready to lead the team against the Australians who have ripped exposed many holes in his team and with the absence of all of the major players, the task will be nothing short of monumental for the right-hander to complete. Virat Kohli’s departure was already announced and the team must have prepared for it if they have to stand a chance to earn the right to be called as a great team, but the injury to Mohammed Shami may well turn out to be the clinching blow as he has been the mainstay for the resurgence of the Indian team on overseas tours, where bowlers, in general, have risen to occasions, only to faltered by batsmen. Captain Rahane will also have to muster the shuffling in the batting order after Kohli’s departure and possible changes into the playing XI due to failures of Prithvi Shaw. Rahane and the team management has a tough call to make on Prithvi Shaw as to how severe his problems are. If the team management believes all the issues pertaining to Shaw’s batting are due to lack of form, they would be tempted to persist with him after all the level of investment put on him in the last two years. But, if they believe the Australians have ripped open the flaws in his technique and that he needs to go back to the drawing board, it opens the door for one of Shubman Gill and KL Rahul to play the Boxing Day Test. Another contentious issue for Rahane and the team management will be to decide who will take the number four politico of Virat Kohli and there were subtle hints to the answer of this question in the two tour games India had played under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane. Hanauma Vihari was promoted above Rahane at the number four and it could have been the signs of what was to come after Kohli’s departure. Promoting Vihari will also allow India to filed five bowling options with Jadeja batting at the number seven position in case Rishabh Pant is preferred over Wriddhiman Saha in search of more cushioning in the batting department. That’s not all for Rahane leading up to the MCG Test as he himself would look back on himself to find his lost pace and rhythm in his batting. Rahane would do well to remember how he counterattacked Mitchell Johnson and match fire to fire against Johnson in the 2014 series, but that old Rahane seems to be lost with a cluttered mind and indecisive footwork. Along with the captaincy, Rahane will also have to lead from the front with the bat and for that, he needs to talk to himself and clear doubts about where his off stump is and what kind of shots he wants to play against a different set of bowlers. Rahane is too good a batsman to miss out continuously for so long, and Indian need him more than ever to come good if they have to have any chance of unseating the Australians who are ready to come at him with all their might at the MCG. Australia vs India: Match Details Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground Date and Time: December 26-30, 05:00 AM IST, 11:30 GMT Broadcaster: Sony Sports Network and SonyLIV Pitch report The MCG pitch is likely to offer bounce to pacers and may also offer grip to the spinners. Indias are likely to play the pair of Ashwin and Jadeja, and they can come in handy in the second innings if the batsmen can put up a big score in the first innings. Various media outlets and journalists have shared on social media that winds are bowling rapidly in Melbourne and it can alter the plans of both teams while bowling. Australian team management was no amused for the pitch they played against India in the 2018 series which according to them did not provide a fair chance for competitions between bat and ball. Coach Justin Langer himself admitted in the press conference that the MCG curators were in huge pressure while preparing the pitch for the last Boxing Day Test against New Zealand last year and they came up with a strip that challenges both batsmen and bowling. Langer has hoped they will be given a chance to play on another pitch similar to the one at the Adelaide Oval which offered bowlers plenty of assistance to keep batsmen under check. In the last few years, pitches at the MCG have not supported a lot of bounce, and the Indian team would not hate the prospect of playing on a surface with lack of bounce especially against the pace of Australian pacers and their skills to extract extra bounce off the pitch. Team News Australia Both David Warner and Will Pucovski remain unavailable for the MCG Test, the hosts are all set to field an unchanged playing XI. Coach Langer said that one must be very brave to change a combination that worked so well for the team in Adelaide. Joe Burns, who had come to the last Test with enormous pressure on him for the lack of runs leading up to the game, showed signs of coming back to his own and hit a half-century in a winning cause in development that would have relived the team management. Although Matthew Wade failed to shine with the bat at the top of the order where he had never batted all his career, Tim Paine and Justin Langer will not be losing sleep over it and they would be hopeful of a similar performance like Adelaide to eliminate any chance of Indian come back in the series. Strongest XI Matthew Wade, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Tim Paine (c & wk), Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon India India have a lot of decisions to take in all the aspects of the game, right from the question of handing Shubman Gill his Test debut or persisting with Shaw at the top of the order, to the replacement of Virat Kohli in the playing XI and the batting order as well as the consumption of team. Ravindra Jadeja has been seen extensively in the net and is all but certain to walk back in the playing XI, and it implies he will come at the place of Virat Kohli as India may well opt to go in with an extra bowler in the absence of Mohammed Shami. For some reasons, it has been a set precedent that if the team is in the lookout for wicketkeeper-batsman while also looking for adding dimension into the batting line up, Rishabh Pant is preferred over Wriddhiman Saha who was selected in the last test apparently for his better credentials behind the stumps. Crazy as it may sound, that’s how the team management has been deciding on the selection of wicketkeeper in the last 18-24 months. There is a direct shootout between Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Sani for the place of the third seamer in the playing XI but based on their performances in the tour games, Sirja might be tipped ahead of Saini for the Test debut. Strongest XI Prithvi Shaw/Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj Australia vs India: Dream 11 team and suggestion Rishabh Pant, Mayank Agarwal, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Cheteshwar Pujara, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jasprit Bumrah, Nathan Lyon Captain: Steve Smith Vice-captain: Cheteshwar Pujara

BCCI AGM: Indian Women’s team to start competitive cricket soon

One of the major outcomes of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Annual General Meeting (AGM) is that the Indian Women’s team’s competitive international cricket drought would come to an end in 2021 finally. The Board has decided to get the women’s team some much-needed game time. But before the International tournaments and the IPL Challenge games, the Women cricketers would be tested in a domestic tournament in February. “The Women’s team will start playing home and away from March. BCCI will try to accommodate as many tours as possible, that couldn’t happen last year,” TOI quoted a senior BCCI member as saying. After the domestic tournament, Indian eves would most probably play against Sri Lanka at home, while the first foreign tour for the ladies after the pandemic might be to England. This would be the first occasion after the Indian team lost to Australia in the finals of the T20 World Cup in March this year. The Board is also eager to stretch the domestic season this year. “The BCCI is trying to organize as many age-group tournaments as possible. The domestic season might even stretch into June-July,” a BCCI source said.

No Ajit Agarkar! CAC choses new selection committee for Team India

Former Indian fast-bowling all-rounder will head the senior Indian Men’s selection committee as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today announced the new selection committee for the Indian Men’s team. The BCCI made this announcement via a tweet. It was shocking in the sense that Former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar, who was anticipated to head the committee, didn’t even find a mention of himself in the committee. The other members of the CAC apart from Madan Lal include former India pacer RP Singh and women's cricket The selection was done on the basis of the recommendation by the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) headed by Madan Lal. Apart from Sharma,54 as the chairman, the other two members are former India and Mumbai fast bowler Abey Kuruvilla and Odisha speedster Debashish Mohanty. While Kuruvilla, 47, played 10 Tests for India, Mohanty, 44 represented the Men in Blue 45 times while also playing two Test matches.

I have always admired the way he operates: Williamson praises Dhoni

Kiwi captain Kane Williamson was in awe of the former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni during his recent interview with Sports good, especially cricket bat manufacturing company Gray Nicolls. In the interview, the Blackcaps leader who has captained the side to a 50 Over World Cup final and a T20 World Cup Semi-Final, said that he admires the way MS Dhoni operates in the game. Answering the question, “Is there a captain from history you would have liked to have played under/learned from?” Williamson 31 said, “MS Dhoni is someone I've always admired in the way he operates.” The Tauranga born also lavished huge praises on his former captain Brendon McCullum saying, “I was fortunate to play under Brendon McCullum for a number of years who did amazing things with the team. You're always influenced by your surroundings, so I do appreciate the things I could learn under Brendon.” New Zealand will play Pakistan in what would be their last series part of the inaugural World Test Championship and if the Kiwi team wins it 2-0, it would pose a great threat to India as it’s 2-0 sweep would mean that India would have to win at least five of its next seven games to qualify for the finals in Lord’s in June 2021. “We know how good Pakistan is, we have to be at our very best right from the start,” Williamson said at the ve of the first Test at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.