There were concerns surrounding the staging of the first “Day-Night” Test between Australia and India in Adelaide. The South Australia government had enforced a hard six-day lockdown amidst a re-emergence of a Covid-19 cluster last weekend. New information has surfaced that would allow an early loosening of restrictions giving a boost to prospects of a smooth passage to the December 17th Test, which is of course quite some time away.
Having experienced a three-month bio-bubble in the UAE during the course of IPL 2020, the men in blue are experiencing their toughest test in isolation in Australia. Since their arrival at Sydney on November 12, the only place the Indians have been able to move out to from their hotels is the cricket ground for practice sessions. ‘Hotel to the ground and back to the hotel rooms’ is the routine for now. prompting some team members to comment in humour that Australia’s bio-secure bubble is a “Five-star prison”
Australian middle-order limited-over specialist batsman Glenn Maxwell has been heard saying that the absence of “hit-man” Rohit Sharma from the ODI and T-20 fixtures will be a big boost to Australia’s chances. But he is quick to add that Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) team mate that KL Rahul is equally good a batsman as Sharma. Maxwell also rates another KXIP team mate, speedster Mohammad Shami, very highly.
Tragedy struck Mohammed Siraj with the Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) pacer losing his father away in Hyderabad to a lung ailment. Siraj who is currently in Australia along with Team India learnt of his father’s demise after completing his practice session in Sydney. The 26-year old Hyderabad seamer, the only bowler in Indian Premier League history to bowl back-to-back maiden overs, is part of the Test squad. With strict COVID-19 quarantine rules in place in Sydney, Siraj will unfortunately miss out on his late father’s last rites.
Tickets for the 6 upcoming limited-over matches between Australia and India beginning November 27th have been sold out within a day of them being released. Tickets for the Sydney and Canberra fixtures went on sale to the general public on Friday morning and by midday the only seats up for grabs were the 1900 left for the November 27th clash. The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) and Canberra Manuka Oval matches will see only a 50 per cent occupancy in accordance to the Covid-19 restrictions put in place.
Virat Kohli is set to miss the last three of the four-Test match series commencing December-mid as he will be returning home to welcome his first-born baby sometime in January. The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) has granted Kohli paternity leave. The ace 32-year old batsman will nevertheless be around to lead Team India in the three-match ODI (One-day International series) and three-match T20 series commencing this Friday.
As cricket fans wait with bated breath for India’s tour to Australia, a couple of milestones will be under focus. Virat Kohli who has 11867 ODI runs from 239 matches needs 133 runs to become the fastest batsman ever to reach the 12000-run mark. The great Sachin Tendulkar took 300 innings to reach the milestone, Ponting 314, Sangakkara 336, Jayasuriya 379 and Jayawardene in 399. Kohli is expected to achieve that in far less! Leg-break bowler Yuzvendra Chahal who has scalped 91 ODI wickets from his 52 appearances needs 9 more to reach the 100-wicket mark. If he can achieve that in the upcoming 3-match ODI series, he will become the fastest Indian to reach the landmark! It could become a close race with another wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav who achieved the milestone in 58 matches.
