Cricket Australia has advised the sold-out crowd on Boxing Day to brace for extreme conditions, with CA’s chief of cricket James Allsopp encouraging fans to take proper precautions while assuring additional drinks breaks for the players involved in the Test match.
Ever since the retirement of David Warner in January, Australia have struggled to sort out their top order conundrum, and had tried Steve Smith for sometime before opting for McSweeney in the lead-up to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The drawn Test in Brisbane has left the race to next year's World Test Championship final wide open with Australia marginally ahead of India at the second and third spots, respectively.
Moments after the rain-marred Brisbane Test ended in a draw, India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday shocked the cricketing world by announcing his immediate retirement from international cricket, midway through the Border-Gavaskar series.
India and Australia will head to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Testwith the five-match Border-Gavaskar series squared at one-all after heavy Brisbane rain swept away any chance of a result on the final day of the third Test at the Gabba.
After his failure to replicate the success of Perth in Adelaide, there were growing calls of dropping K L Rahul back to No.6, but the Karnataka right-hander continued to enjoy the backing of the team management, and walked out as the opener at the Gabba.
Australia’s decision to rush back Josh Hazlewood for the Gabba Test backfired as the 32-year-old broke down in the middle of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and potentially runs the risk of missing the remainder of the ongoing Test, and the series, as well.
Cummins, though was rewarded for his persistence, six overs later, when he managed to get his opposite number Rohit Sharma (10), with a leg-cutter inducing a thinner edge back to wicketkeeper Alex Carry.
Jasprit Bumrah’s stocks rose exponentially ever since he arrived on Australian shores this summer, with the pace ace leading India to a commanding win in the Border-Gavaskar series opener in Perth, before leaving his mark in Adelaide and Brisbane.
India’s top order batting woes continued to haunt them as the visitors witnessed another batting collapse that left them reeling at 51 for 4, 394 runs adrift of Australia at stumps, on what had been a stop-start day of Test cricket, featuring as many as eight stoppages for rain at the Gabba on Monday.
