Cummins also provided an update on their players Travis Head who has turned out to be a headache for Indian team. The captain stated that Head has checked all the required circumstances that were required in the net session.

“Trav’s good to go, he’ll play. He just ticked off some final things today and yesterday. But no worries about injury with Trav. He’ll go into the game fully fit,” Australian skipper told the reporters.

“I don’t think you’ll see too much management of him throughout the game. He just kind of plays as is. Maybe around fielding, if he’s a bit uncomfortable, we will (manage him), but he’s fully fit,” he added.

“It feels like the last 12 months, he’s been in this unbelievable vein of form and he just keeps going on with it,” said Cummins.

“He’s hitting the ball really cleanly. You can see the pressure that he shifts back onto the opposition literally from the first ball that he walks out there,” he further added.

“I’m loving that he’s in our team and I don’t have to try to set a field and bowl to him. He’s hitting the ball as well as I’ve ever seen anyone. So long may it continue.” he concluded.

Australia Playing XI for 4th Test against India-
Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

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Pujara showered praise on Starc, who he believes has improved drastically since their meeting in the 2018/19 and 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar series. He also said that the left-arm quick has looked more dangerous than both Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood so far.

“He has been the best bowler for them in this series. And the way Mitchell Starc has played in the last 1-1.5 years, he has brought a lot of improvement. And he has a lot of ability,” Pujara said on Star Sports.

“If I talk about my personal experience, when he used to play in the last series in 2018 or 2021, I used to feel that if he plays against me, I will get runs. And now, when he is playing in this series, it feels like he will take wickets. So what is the difference? The difference is that his line length, his accuracy has increased a lot. He is bowling very less loose deliveries. He is playing on the stump. Every ball is hitting on the good length spot. He is getting swing. So the change he has brought in his game has made him a different player. And he is looking more dangerous than Cummins and Hazlewood,” Pujara added.

The India star also pointed out that how the Men in Blue can neutralize Starc in the upcoming Test in Melbourne. According to him, the India batters will have to play well against Starc in his opening spell and try to tire him as much as they can.

“So we will have to take care of his game, especially from the new games. In the first 5 overs, his first spell, he has taken the most wickets there. So if there is a good batting in the first 5 overs, bring him for the 2nd or 3rd spell. Because he gets tired. So the batting of the top order so far, our top order has never played in the 3rd or 4th spell. The ones who have played are the lower middle order and the tail enders. And there we saw that when Bumrah and Akash were batting, when Mitchell Starc was bowling, he was not that effective. So they will have to play their new game well,” Pujara said.

The fourth match of the Border-Gavaskar series is set to commence on Boxing Day, December 26 and will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

The post NOT Pat Cummins: Cheteshwar Pujara names THIS pacer as the best Australian bowler in BGT so far appeared first on Cricket Country.

The left-hander sustained a groin injury and didn’t come out to field during India’s second innings on the final day of the Test. This could be a major turning point in the series as an injury to Travis Head can prove to be fatal for the Aussies heading into the Melbourne Test.

Head was the star performer for Australia in their dominant 10-wicket win over India in Adelaide, playing a fantastic knock of 140 which took his side to a very strong position in the Test.

The 30-year-old once again shined in the Brisbane Test and scored a brilliant 152 to carry Australia to a humongous first inning total of 445. With the knock, he also completed his second consecutive century of the series.

Head was struggling with his groin while batting alongside Alex Carey on the fifth day of Brisbane Test. On many occasions, the batter was also seen moving uncomfortably. Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri described the situation as a “body blow” for Australia, with only a week remaining until the Boxing Day Test.

“This whole series is on the line and that’s the last thing Australia want … let’s hope it’s a niggle and seven days is enough,” Shastri said.

Former Australia cricketer Brad Haddin stated that Head’s potential absence would be a bigger blow to the team than Hazlewood and labelled the former as Australia’s ‘shining light’ with the bat.

“It doesn’t look good … this is a bigger loss than Josh Hazlewood, if Travis Head is out of this series (it’s huge), he’s been the one shining light with the bat. He’s very reluctant to stretch out and that’s really bad signs for the Aussies,” Haddin said.

With the Brisbane Test ending in a draw, the series remains level on 1-1 after the end of 3 matches. All eyes now will be on the upcoming Boxing Day Test which will be held in Melbourne from December 26.

The post Travis Head to be ruled out of Melbourne Test? Batter’s groin injury rocks Australia appeared first on Cricket Country.

It is safe to say that Australia’s decision to bring back Hazlewood has backfired big time. The seamer missed the second Test in Adelaide and the Baggy Greens opted to play Scott Boland in place of him. Hazlewood may have recovered in time for the third Test, but now he has suffered a fresh injury.

“He is likely to miss the remainder of the Test series. A squad replacement will be made in due course,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson said.

Hazlewood was seen limping off the field on the fourth day of Brisbane Test after bowling his only over. The pacer did bowl 5 overs on the third day and even picked up the big wicket of Virat Kohli, but didn’t look in his best shape. He also had a lengthy chat with captain Pat Cummins and vice-captain Steve Smith before walking off the field.

Without Hazlewood’s services, pacers Mitchell Starc and Cummins bowled the majority of overs on the fourth day of the Test match which was interrupted several times by the rain.

Hazlewood only bowled a total of 6 overs before walking off the field on the fourth day of the Test. He finished with the figures of 1/22 in half a dozen overs.

The post Australia given MAJOR blow, star pacer likely to miss rest of the Border-Gavaskar series appeared first on Cricket Country.

Both the batters have failed to live up to expectations as Kohli has scored 126 runs in 5 innings and this includes his knock of 100* in the Perth Test. Kohli lost his wicket at The Gabba while trying to play his signature cover drive on a delivery that was pitched well outside his off-stump. He ended up edging the ball straight to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.

On the other hand, Gill didn’t feature in the first Test due to a thumb injury and made his return to the team in the second Test. In the 3 innings that he has played so far, Gill has scored 60 runs which is again quite average. Gill lost his wicket due to a fabulous catch from Mitchell Marsh at square leg.

Meanwhile, India ended Day 3 on 51/4 with KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma on the crease. On the fourth day, the India skipper also ended losing his wicket cheaply and it was the 67-run partnership between Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja that steadied India’s sinking ship.

The post WATCH: Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill practice in the nets after flop show in Brisbane Test appeared first on Cricket Country.

Harbhajan had gone to the nets to share information about the training that Virat and Gill were going through, he revealed that Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, and sidearm specialists were seen bowling to both the batters in the nets.

Kohli got out with plating a cover drive on a delivery way outside the off-stump. Even though there have been lot of calls from former cricketers for Kohli to restrain himself from playing a cover drive, the veteran batter does not want to give up on it like legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar did two decades ago in Sydney.

“They have been hitting a lot of balls here. Why are they here? They haven’t been scoring a lot of runs in this series. India need Virat and Gill to fire. It’s so good to see them at the practice session even when Team India is batting out there. They are here in the nets, hitting a lot of balls. You can feel good by hitting a lot of balls. When you are not in form, you can feel better by hitting a lot of balls,” Harbhajan told the broadcasters.

“I hope these practice sessions will bring what India needs in the middle,” he added.

#HarbhajanSingh shares his mantra: The more you play, the better you get. Watch as he reviews #ViratKohli & #ShubmanGill putting in the hard yards in the nets!#AUSvINDOnStar 👉 3rd Test, Day 4 | LIVE NOW on Star Sports! #ToughestRivalry #BorderGavaskarTrophy pic.twitter.com/hKm7IVHvBd

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 17, 2024

Kohli has struggled in the first innings of all the Tests played in the ongoing 2024-25 season. He has an average of 9.12 in the first innings, and his highest score is 47 against Bangladesh during this period. the only big score made by Kohli was his single century that came in the second innings of the Perth Test.

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During the drinks break, Fox Cricket asked Nathan Lyon to provide an update on Josh Hazewood’s injury. Nathan stated that Josh ‘was all god’. However, he was not involved with the discussions in team during the short break.

Josh Hazlewood had bowled only one over on Day 4, as he gave out 5 runs excluding one byes. He was welcomed by KL Rahul with a superb boundary as the ball was pitched short and wide. After the first ball itself, former England captain Michael Vaughan had said that Hazlewood is struggling with some sort of injury.

Mitchell Marsh had been introduced to the attack early in the innings. Since Josh Hazlewood is likely not going to bowl on Day 4, it is going to be a major setback for Australia as they need to bowl out India twice to win the third Test. This is going to be a massive operation for them as they have just three pacers. Even Marnus Labuschagne can be given the ball in order to provide the fast bowlers some chance to breathe.

The post Big Blow to Australia: Star bowler suffered calf injury after Bowling just one over on Day 4 of Gabba Test appeared first on Cricket Country.

Kohli once again went chasing for a wide delivery and ended up handing wicketkeeper Alex Carey a simple catch. Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar heavily criticized Kohli after the dismissal, saying that there was no need for the batter to play that shot as the ball was pitched on the ‘seventh, eighth stump’.

“If it was on the fourth stump I could understand. This was wide, on the seventh, eighth stump, you could say. There’s no need to play that,” Gavaskar said on Channel 7.

Gavaskar also stated that Kohli needed to show patience as India had already lost both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill within the first 3 overs of their innings.

“He’d be very, very disappointed, he’d be very upset with that. Even before Rishabh Pant faced a ball, the rain started to come down and the covers have come on. If Kohli had shown a bit of patience he could be not out with KL Rahul,” Gavaskar said.

Kohli once again lost his wicket while trying to play a drive on a delivery which was bowled well outside his off-stump. This problem has been going on with Kohli since the start of his career and it comes back to haunt him time after time again.

The post ‘No need to play…’: Sunil Gavaskar BLASTS Virat Kohli for poor dismissal in Brisbane Test appeared first on Cricket Country.

However, it is safe to say that things didn’t go as planned and the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli lost their wickets within the first 8 overs of the innings.

Following such a poor batting display, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar questioned the Indian batting coach and said that he isn’t impressed with his work.

Manjrekar noted that the players have made repetitive mistakes throughout the tour so far. He seemingly was talking about Kohli, who once again departed to the dugout after chasing a wide delivery bowled well outside the off stump.

“I guess the time has come to scrutinise the role of a batting coach in the Indian team. Why major technical issues have remained unresolved for so long with certain Indian batters,” Sanjay Manjrekar wrote on X.

Though Manjrekar did point questions at India’s batting coach, however currently there is no batting coach in the team. Gautam Gambhir is the head coach while Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate are working as the assistant coaches.

The Indian top-order once again crumbled in front of Australian pacers. Mitchell Starc dismissed Jaiswal on the second ball of the innings before picking up Gill’s wicket on the first ball of his second over. Then, Hazlewood dismissed Kohli for just 3 runs to leave India reeling on 22/3.

The post ‘The time has come to…’: Sanjay Manjrekar BLASTS Virat Kohli, questions India’s coaching set-up appeared first on Cricket Country.

The 36-year-old was dismissed by experienced Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood who had also got his wicket in India’s first innings of the Perth Test.

Kohli came out to bat with India having lost both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill which restricted them to 6/2. It was expected that Kohli would help in steadying India’s ship alongside KL Rahul, however the former could only last 16 deliveries before Hazlewood dismissed him. The wicket left India reeling on 22/3.

Following Kohli’s cheap dismissal, fans took to social media to criticize the 36-year-old with many even asking him to retire for the betterment of Indian cricket.

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