While Stokes’ leadership style has attracted all the attention, Rohit has achieved better results with more obvious calls

Karthik Krishnaswamy29-Feb-20242:04

Harmison: Rohit’s captaincy applied pressure on England

Some choices feel obvious in hindsight, but are anything but that at the time of making. It wasn’t that long ago, for instance, that Kuldeep Yadav vs Washington Sundar felt like a legitimate debate. India were 1-0 down, having lost an un-loseable Test in Hyderabad, and were going into the second Test in Visakhapatnam with Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul ruled out, with 119 Test caps snatched away from an already depleted line-up.India were bringing in a debutant in Rahul’s place, but how would they replace the irreplaceable Jadeja? He wasn’t just one of their two main spinners but also their regular No. 6 and top-scorer in the first innings in Hyderabad. Would they bring in Kuldeep, a brilliant, wicket-taking wristspinner who wasn’t yet a proven quantity in Test cricket, or would they hedge their bets with Washington, an allrounder who could slot in at No. 6 but was a considerable downgrade on Jadeja as a bowler?When Jadeja returned for the third Test in Rajkot, it still felt legitimate to ask who would go out to accommodate him. Would it be Kuldeep, or would it be Axar Patel? At roughly the same time in 2023, when Australia were touring India, the same question had done the rounds, and Axar had won out thanks to his batting and style of fast, into-the-wicket fingerspin.Related

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Axar’s bowling returns had waned since then, but he was averaging over 50 with the bat in the same period. Kuldeep had outbowled Axar in Visakhapatnam, but it was only one Test and only his first Test since December 2022.India backed Kuldeep this time around, and left out Axar.India still had a way of shoehorning Washington or Axar into their line-up if they wished. They had two opportunities to play the extra spin-bowling allrounder at the expense of an inexperienced second fast bowler, but they ignored or resisted that option both times, picking Mukesh Kumar in Visakhapatnam and Akash Deep in Ranchi.In hindsight, it feels that India made the obvious choice each time. They weren’t anything like obvious when India made them.Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have built a culture where players feel empowered to express themselves•Getty ImagesThe choices did, however, follow a logic that was easy to discern if you’ve followed India for any length of time. Home or away, India tend to pick the attack that’s likeliest to take 20 wickets, even if it’s at the expense of their batting – even the exceptions to this rule, Axar and Shardul Thakur, lost their places when their wicket-taking returns declined. India followed this broad philosophy during the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri regime, and they have stuck with it under Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid.Sometimes, the best decisions are the obvious ones, the ones that every reasonably informed viewer expects you to make.Those kinds of decisions, however, don’t make for a great story, or hours of commentary-box dissection.Which brings us, belatedly, to the thrust of this piece, which is that, for all the attention lavished on Bazball over the last month or so, Hitball, or Jammyball, or whatever else you may want to call it, has quietly gone about the business of winning Test matches.Last year, Pat Cummins found himself in the unusual position of having his tactical calls pilloried when he was in the process of retaining the Ashes. At various points during this series, particularly until India’s rousing show of strength on day three in Rajkot, Rohit has been subject to something similar.Hitball has outdone Bazball in this series•AFP/Getty ImagesIt can happen to any captain when they’re pitted against Ben Stokes, a man who seems unusually becalmed if he changes his field every second ball rather than every ball. That hyperactive style of on-field captaincy is always easier to observe, because its effects can’t help but be immediate. It’s much likelier for a wicket to look like a tactical masterstroke if the fielder catching the ball has only just been moved there, rather than if he’s stood there for an hour.And there’s a self-fuelling cycle of discourse at play. England’s players talk endlessly about playing under Stokes and Brendon McCullum, in large part because they’re endlessly asked about it in interviews and press conferences.None of this is to say Stokes isn’t an excellent, inventive captain, and that England haven’t built a culture where players feel cared for, and empowered to express themselves and enjoy the blessed fact that they play sport for a living. Win or lose, these are good things.It’s the fate of Bazball’s opposition captains, however, to be judged harshly unless they win.Take this example from Rajkot. On day two, Rohit brought Kuldeep on before R Ashwin, with a ball that was only six overs old, and Kuldeep took a hammering from Ben Duckett. When it happened, it was the easiest thing for any viewer to point to Ashwin’s brilliant record with the new ball, against left-handers, and against Duckett in particular, and wonder how Rohit made such an obvious blunder as delaying his introduction.

Sometimes, the best decisions are the obvious ones, the ones that every reasonably informed viewer expects you to make. Those kinds of decisions, however, don’t make for a great story, or hours of commentary-box dissection

It took until Kuldeep’s match-defining 12-over spell on the third morning for a simpler truth to dawn on the viewer, that Rohit, in bowling Kuldeep ahead of Ashwin, had merely brought on one brilliant bowler before bringing on another. He had made a perfectly sound choice, and sound choices come with no guarantee of working.And if it seemed that Kuldeep bowled better on day three than he did on day two, it was also the result of switching from one reasonable plan – attack the stumps against a batter happy to sweep – to another – force the batter to sweep from wide of off stump. Either plan could have worked; in that instance, one did and one did not.That Kuldeep’s change of line was so effective also had something to do with the field Rohit set. He stationed both a deep-backward square leg and a deep midwicket, asking Duckett either to take even more of a risk than he had already been taking to play the slog sweep, or to put away the shot.You could call it a brilliant plan, because it worked. You could also call it defensive captaincy, and it wouldn’t be an incorrect definition. It’s always been difficult to use the word defensive in a non-pejorative way, though, and it’s only become harder in the time of Bazball.Kuldeep Yadav and Rohit Sharma celebrate Ben Duckett’s wicket in the Ranchi Test•Getty ImagesRohit has also given us examples of aggressive captaincy through this series. Take Kuldeep’s dismissal of Zak Crawley in the second innings in Ranchi. Crawley was batting on 60 and going at a 65-plus strike rate, but Kuldeep bowled to him with no one in the covers. Crawley looked to punch through that gap, off the back foot, and was bowled, beaten by one that turned sharply into him.Was it really aggressive, though, or just a routine field setting on a pitch where the odd ball was turning sharply and liable to keep low as well? Ashwin and Shoaib Bashir, who turn the ball into the right-hander like Kuldeep, also bowled with 6-3 leg-side fields for much of this Test match, and having only three fielders on the off side generally means you leave either cover or backward point open. Neither Ashwin nor Bashir happened to pick up a wicket that seemed like a direct outcome of their field, but it was just as sound an option for them as it was for Kuldeep when he got Crawley out.This, in essence, is the issue with the bulk of captaincy discourse. Captaincy looks good when it works, and looks even better when it works in obvious ways. And given how many heads get together to come up with a team’s plans in this day and age, it’s not even clear that we’re praising or burying the right person when we praise or bury Rohit or Stokes.What has been clear, though, is that India have played relentlessly good cricket through this series, and made relentlessly aggressive selections. They have always played five bowlers, and picked the better bowler over the hedge-the-bets allrounder when they’ve had the choice. England, in their reluctance to play a fifth bowler, and in entrusting Joe Root with as heavy a bowling workload as they have, have not demonstrated the same sort of aggression.In that most basic way, then, Hitball, or Jammyball, or whatever else you may want to call it, has outdone Bazball by quite a margin.

India’s Under-19 star on the importance of family, playing mind games with his brother Sarfaraz, and more

Shashank Kishore29-Jan-2024Musheer Khan is three weeks shy of turning 19. It’s an age where teenagers are excited to escape from their parents’ clutches and leap into the unknown. Musheer is slightly different, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. (father) charts Musheer’s plans on a weekly basis. Their life revolves around the , with Naushad Khan instructing net bowlers and throwdown specialists to target his weakness. Practice sessions are relentless.If it’s raining, the 18-yard turf besides their residence in Mumbai’s Taximan Colony is the training ground for practice against the short ball with wet tennis balls. If there’s sunshine, one of the several in Mumbai, or at their home town of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, is where they are at.Related

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All this, of course, is when Musheer, and older brother Sarfaraz Khan, are meant to have some downtime, away from the plethora of cricket they play at various levels. At the Khan household, downtime means rest between training sessions.The sons are as busy as they’ve ever been, and Naushad currently has some time at hand. Musheer, the youngest, is currently at the Under-19 World Cup, traversing the same journey his oldest son Sarfaraz did over a decade ago. At the 2014 edition in Dubai, Musheer, all of nine at the time, watched Sarfaraz from the stands. Today, he’s a key allrounder in the Uday Saharan-led team that has entered the Super Six stage on the back of three convincing wins.In three outings, Musheer has picked up two wickets with his thrifty left-arm orthodox. Both those scalps came against Bangladesh at a crucial juncture in the chase. His economy of 2.85 has largely been down to batters unwilling to rake risks against him and fellow left-arm spinner Saumy Pandey. With the bat, at No. 3, Musheer has knocks of 3, 118 and 73 in his three outings.So what sort of a batter is he?Musheer Khan is an industrious batter who can accumulate runs quietly•Getty ImagesIndustrious is a decent place to begin. He can accumulate runs quietly. And then suddenly he’ll grab your attention with some audacious sweeps and scoops, like older brother Sarfaraz. He’s got a stable base, and also tackles the short ball well. Coaches vouch for his backfoot game. Recently, the ICC put out a video package with Sarfaraz and Musheer on a split-screen. The similarities between the two are eerie.Musheer is away from the media glare at large in South Africa. When he wasn’t, in the summer of 2022, he chatted with ESPNcricinfo during the knockout stages of the Ranji Trophy in Bengaluru. He’d just broken into Mumbai’s Ranji squad, on the back of a sensational run at the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy. He led Mumbai to the final, where he was named Player of the Tournament for his 632 runs and 32 wickets.Musheer was 17, and still very boyish, without a thin beard he sports today. His squeaky voice was a throwback to his pre-teen days. He was only in the mix as a reserve, but there was an enormous sense of maturity that stemmed from having grown up playing with Sarfaraz and training with . He didn’t carry a cellphone back then, because didn’t want him to be “distracted.”The team manager or Sarfaraz would relay any important information or details such as flight/hotel bookings. A pouch of cash – “only what is necessary” – stashed away in one corner of his kit bag for regular spending. These were ‘s way of ensuring his youngest son was solely focused on cricket.The brother seemed to share a great bond. Sarfaraz was the protective older brother, Musheer happily tagging along with big brother. They were ready to play table tennis when this correspondent bumped into them. There weren’t too many videos of Musheer the batter, so it’s obvious Sarfaraz would be the go-to person for any info on his younger sibling.Sarfaraz Khan (left) and father Naushad have both played an important part in Musheer’s development•Naushad Khan”He’s a better batter than me,” Sarfaraz quipped. “I’m not saying this because he’s my brother. Sometimes, I may be struggling but watching his technique and trying to work out what he’s doing would give me confidence. His mannerisms, bat flow is very good. Sometimes when I’m not batting well, I look at him and learn.”It’s natural that Musheer began bowling initially, being the youngest sibling. But Naushad wasn’t one to let him focus on only one aspect of his game. Naushad says his experience of training Sarfaraz taught him to ensure his youngest son would be multi-skilled.”If I batted 300 balls, Musheer would bat for 300 balls even if he’d done a lot of bowling,” Sarfaraz said. “Our middle brother, Moin, would do the throwdowns. Having two cricketers in the house, he decided to switch to training.”What are the aspects of their game where there’s healthy competition?”Musheer’s reverse sweep is better than mine,” Sarfaraz says spontaneously. “Sweep, I think mine is better since I have better judgment that has come from experience. We always want the other to do better. Now when he bowls and I bat, there’s a lot of healthy competition.”It wasn’t always the case.”When Musheer was very small, and I used to play Under-19s, we used to do a lot of match simulation. asked him to bowl spin and I think in one over, I hit him for three fours and three sixes. Musheer ran away crying.” said ‘we need to make him stronger. (until it doesn’t hurt him) he won’t learn . He didn’t stop anyone from poking fun at him. It was tough love. Musheer has improved a lot since. , bowler? (A bowler only learns from getting hit, no?)”These days if we’re playing on opposite sides, I sledge him if I hit him for a six (laughs).”At this juncture, a shy Musheer opened up. “.” (You need to play with your brother’s mind). He has a lot of shots. You need to play on his patience. Like toss it up wide, get him to slog sweep, have short fine in place.”The brothers shared a laugh and slapped high fives. The jovial and candid interaction is filled with some wonderful little nuggets, so much admiration for their father, and of course non-stop chatter about cricket, techniques, practice, matches and runs. It almost feels like there’s no life outside cricket.

“Musheer’s reverse sweep is better than mine. Sweep, I think mine is better since I have better judgment that has come from experience. We always want the other to do better. Now when he bowls and I bat, there’s a lot of healthy competition”Sarfaraz Khan on playing alongside his brother

During lockdown, Naushad and the boys packed up and left Mumbai to their hometown in Uttar Pradesh. With lockdowns in place, they drove across 1600 kilometres with several pitstops. Naushad had chalked out a map that involved them staying over to train at a number of private cricket facilities along the way to ensure they spent time better during lockdown.”Sometimes, we would practice (in the terrace),” Musheer said.”If we have to drive non-stop it takes a day. wouldn’t let me drive,” Sarfaraz chimed in. “He’d be like, you guys should rest because there’s training to look forward to. So we stopped and completed the journey across 10-12 days, with a lot of training sessions in between.”At this point, it’s only Musheer’s first tour with Mumbai. Naushad and Sarfaraz have been media friendly; at times the “friendliness” has possibly come in harm’s way. Musheer has been largely isolated. But things will change, should he return from South Africa as an Under-19 world champion.But even until a couple of years ago, Musheer remembers receiving an earful every time he was out playing a bad shot. “.” (I’ve also been scolded. Not for breaking glasses, but for playing rash shots). At home, he’s . Ground , I call him coach.”Musheer has come a long way in these last two years. The shy persona has given way to a more outgoing nature. He’s in the thick of things, cheering bowlers, at times playing mind games with the opponents, chiming instructions from slip, offering Saharan a helping hand with on-field strategy. The shy youngster is a lot more open and candid in interviews, pulling off dance moves, mimicking actors and team-mates.Behind all that, of course, is a mature 18-year-old firmly in charge of his own fortunes. And Naushad, not used to having such a lengthy downtime because both his sons are away playing cricket – Sarfaraz has just earned a maiden Test call-up – can’t be prouder.

The ace spinner needs to respond to the rule change where third umpires are catching the marginal no-balls he used to get away with

Sidharth Monga04-Mar-2024Ravindra Jadeja has bowled 52 front-foot no-balls in Test cricket since December 2020. Of the 18 overall no-balls he had bowled before that, four had bounced more than once, and seven were detected by the third umpire because they had either resulted in dismissals or were reviewed under DRS. We don’t have records that confirm all of the remaining seven were indeed front-foot no-balls. Be that as it may, you get the gist: Jadeja has been bowling an extraordinarily high number of no-balls since late 2020.In a way, this increase in no-balls has nothing to do with Jadeja. In mid-2020, the ICC handed over calling of all foot-fault no-balls to the third umpire. Before that turning point in cricket, the third umpires used to check for no-balls only if the ball had resulted in a dismissal or if a non-dismissal had been reviewed by the fielding side.Now Jadeja is the perfect illustration for why you need a third umpire, for why it is so difficult to call no-balls on the field. He pushes the line anyway, but to add to that, he doesn’t land flat. His front foot goes well over the line in the air, then he drags it back while still in the air, and the toe makes the landing first. The umpire has to quickly draw an imaginary straight line from his heel to the ground and calculate in their head if it falls on the popping crease or just behind.Related

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That most of Jadeja’s no-balls are only caught on replay means he hasn’t started overstepping in 2020. Just that, he has started getting called for overstepping in 2020. Just imagine how many no-balls were missed before the third umpires started to check every ball for a foot fault. Not just from Jadeja, but especially Jadeja, because his landing is so difficult to work out.In another way, the increase in no-balls has everything to do with Jadeja. Since the third umpires took over calling all foot-fault no-balls, starting with the Test series between England and West Indies in July 2020, Kagiso Rabada and Ben Stokes have sent down the most foot-fault no-balls: 77. They are fast bowlers, and their increase from before third-umpires is not huge – 50s to 77. No spinner, however, comes even close to Jadeja’s 52 no-balls, and he has gone from seven foot-fault no-balls to 52. At No. 5, he is the only spinner among the top 14 bowlers of no-balls since the third umpire started checking every ball.Jadeja is one of the all-time great spinners and allrounders. He is such a gifted athlete that everything on the cricket field seems to come naturally to him. He is like a well-oiled machine on the road: smooth and seemingly effortless. This is not to say he doesn’t work hard, but he does give the impression that he does things the way he knows, and most of the times it just turns out to be too good for most other cricketers.With these no-balls, though, Jadeja needs to put in the extra effort. And it is not a big effort. Most of these are extremely marginal no-balls, and avoiding them requires only a small adjustment. A Test cricketer shouldn’t take so long to respond to a rule change.Known for his glib, funny one-liners on the field, India’s Test captain Rohit Sharma shouted during the ongoing Test series: “This Jadeja doesn’t bowl no-balls in the IPL, man. Jaddu, just imagine it’s T20.”In T20s, with the threat of the free hit around, Jadeja has overstepped just twice since 2020. In ODIs, he has done so only six times. The same should be easy to apply in Tests. In this series alone, Jadeja has bowled 11 no-balls, nearly twice what anybody else has. Luckily none of those has impacted his 17 wicket-taking balls, but it shouldn’t take a no-ball to cost him a wicket to make that adjustment.

The opener has a reputation for being a basher but in Harare he showed that he has more gears to his game

Ekanth07-Jul-20243:06

Takeaways: Abhishek gives a glimpse into India’s future

The risks attached to Abhishek Sharma come with the territory. Four-ball duck? Part of the territory. Three sixes to bring up a hundred next day? Territory. Eight dots in the first 20 balls? Well, that’s potentially a sign of the territory expanding.Abhishek earned his spot in India’s T20I side after blowing the roof off of IPL 2024, where he made 484 runs at a strike rate of 204. That included 42 sixes in 16 innings and 78 boundaries in 237 balls. Also, none of his innings lasted for over 28 balls.You know what you will get with Abhishek. It’s hit that puts all hitting to shame or, you know, that dreaded miss. It’s a dynamic that’s inherent to T20s, one that India are trying to take in their stride, to adapt to the changing demands of a fickle format and strip away the conservatism that stunted previous generations.The seniors who won the T20 World Cup a week ago had to do a lot of work and cope with a lot of failure before things fell into place. The youngsters who have come in now don’t carry such baggage, but also can’t afford to be binary.The test Abhishek was put to at Harare demonstrated why. The pitch was far from an IPL featherbed, he didn’t have Travis Head at the other end or Heinrich Klaasen in the wings, and India were trailing 0-1 after failing to chase 116 in the first game.While he duly deposited the first legal ball he faced out of the ground, he couldn’t just keep swinging, not after Shubman Gill fell early. Not with Blessing Muzarabani and Tendai Chatara hitting hard lengths and extracting sideways movement.Abhishek was beaten trying to nudge the ball and trying to belt it, but he wriggled out of trouble by running hard and turning the strike. He saw an opportunity to pounce when Luke Jongwe was brought into the attack in the eighth over, and that should have got him out for 27. Instead, Wellington Masakadza put down a catch.ESPNcricinfo LtdAbhishek carried on with the newfound freedom of a survivor. “After that [drop] I thought it was my day,” he said at the post-match presentation. “[I felt] I should take a bit of responsibility”. He did that by picking his targets. “Rutu[raj Gaikwad] was saying that it was a bit difficult to hit the fast bowlers, so we have to be a bit mindful. I felt that he was making sense. So, if you see, I didn’t play much shots to [Jongwe]. Just tried to get to the other end. That helped a lot.”Sikandar Raza brought himself on for the ninth over and he is a far cry from the traditional fingerspinner. When he skidded one slightly short, it was more like a seamer bowling a cutter on good length. But Abhishek pulled it away with a swift load-up and fast hands through the ball. Proactivity took over the next ball as Abhishek, expecting an adjustment in length, charged down and lifted Raza over extra cover.Maybe another day, he would try to launch the next ball too. At 71 for 1 in 9.2 overs, India were in need of big hits and had the resources to go for them but Abhishek was happy to hold fire. For now.He didn’t have to wait long as Raza replaced himself with Dion Myers. Myers started with a wide to Gaikwad but a half-stop by the keeper brought Abhishek on strike. Abhishek pulled the next bouncer to deep square leg for a single but an overthrow resulted in Abhishek retaining strike and carnage got a long-awaited call: 26 runs in five boundaries to five different areas. Three mis-hits, one ball out of the ground, T20 in excelsis. Abhishek on a joyride. He got to his hundred with three back-to-back sixes, prompting comparisons with Rohit Sharma at the post-match press conference.”Sixer king?” he replied, “If you look at me, you wouldn’t think I’m one. Special mention to my dad. A lot of kids’ coaches don’t allow players to play big shots, but he always told me that if I’m playing a lofted shot, it should go out of the boundary. So since childhood, I’ve felt that if I can execute a shot, then I just want to go and express myself even if it’s the first or the second ball.”My mindset today was like the one I had in the IPL and domestic cricket. It was all about the execution. It was better than yesterday. As a batter, I thought about all the balls I played, it wasn’t many, and I was calculating the risk I should take on the first over or if I should just play according to the ball. I think that execution went really well today.”Abhishek raced from 41 off 30 to 100 off 47, the joint third-fastest hundred for India in T20Is.This innings in isolation probably doesn’t outline the template in which Abhishek will construct an innings. He won’t always have weak links in opposition bowling attacks to pounce on, and even if he makes the same choices from a same situation in a future game, he might not get second chances. Zimbabwe dropped him twice and when they thought they had him, he used DRS to keep going.What it did show was a batter adapting to conditions and situations, while not going into a shell. That’s pretty much what India would have dreamed for while sending future stars to learn on the job.

Stats: No player has put in a greater all-round performance in a single season of the IPL

S Rajesh10-May-2024With 461 runs and 14 wickets in just 11 matches so far in IPL 2024, Sunil Narine stands on the cusp of something extraordinary: 39 more runs and one more wicket will make him the first player in IPL history to achieve the double of 500 runs and 15 wickets in a season.In fact, even with a 20% reduction – 400 runs and 12 wickets – only six instances turn up in the 16 IPL seasons before this one. These have been achieved by four different players, and the last of those came five seasons ago, in 2019 by Hardik Pandya.

Pant was the main attraction on Tuesday before Kohli hit the nets on Wednesday afternoon

Tristan Lavalette13-Nov-20242:06

Straight Talk: Will the lack of warm-up matches cost India?

While the shiny 60,000-seat Optus Stadium, the site of the series-opener in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, takes centre stage in Perth these days, the WACA ground – that old warhorse located on the opposite bank of the Swan River – remains the spiritual home of Western Australian cricket.Walk along Braithwaite Street in East Perth and you pass the famed WACA nets where there is the familiar sight of cricketers – ranging from state to junior players – going through the paces.But on Tuesday it was rather an eyesore, with the nets completely covered by black shade cloth that snaked around near a construction site amid the ground’s major redevelopment, which is expected to be completed before next season.Related

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It was day one of India’s tour of Australia and the secrecy was reminiscent of their last visit to Perth during the 2022 T20 World Cup when a similar effort to thwart prying eyes took place. On that occasion, however, India did play two matches against a WA XI side that attracted near capacity crowds with the entry fee donated to the WA Cricket Foundation.This time around India have opted for total privacy, though the BCCI clarified* that no instruction was given by the team to the WACA stadium authorities or the media that Wednesday’s training would be behind closed doors.As ESPNcricinfo had reported earlier in the month, India opted to scrap a three-day intra-squad game – which would have been played behind closed doors – at the WACA from November 15 to 17 and instead the squad will train during those three days.It was unclear exactly what their training plans are this week, but India decided to get to work quickly having had staggered arrivals into Perth at the weekend. After the WACA ground staff spent Tuesday morning getting the nets into shape, India arrived in the early afternoon to a quiet reception with only a sprinkling of fans greeting them off the team bus.The WACA was in a state of “lockdown”, as splashed around the media, although perhaps slightly alarmist as its front gates were open and staff strolled in and out. But staff – with the ground doubling as WA Cricket’s headquarters – and construction workers have been told not to film or take photos of the training sessions.India have been training behind a black cloth at the WACA in Perth•Tristan LavaletteWhile the massive tarp obscured most of the public view, there were several vantage points along Nelson Crescent – right behind the batters in the nets. The secret training session suddenly became a free for all although onlookers had to take turns standing along a retaining wall with limited space.India’s net session lasted a few hours on Tuesday, but experienced players such as Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin were not present. Among those in the nets were Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. They faced around six deliveries at a time and spent about an hour in total in the nets.With fast and bouncy conditions expected at Optus Stadium, the WACA nets are hoped to acclimatise India’s batters. Several local Perth club quicks, undoubtedly selected for their pace, unleashed hostile bowling with a back of a length seemingly encouraged. But bouncers were rare.Jaiswal was intent on aggression and one of his mighty blows cleared the nets and sailed onto Braithwaite Street which at that time of day is usually teeming with cars and students around the nearby school. Fortunately, the street was momentarily quiet as a keen fan scurried to pocket a memento. Pant was in fluent touch but did cop a blow to his body, while another fierce delivery also hit his bat flush and flew out of his hands. He glanced at the onlookers, some of whom giggled, and sported a wry smile.With Kohli not around on Tuesday, Pant became the main attraction although perhaps in an indication of cricket’s standing in an Australian-rules-football-obsessed city, many locals didn’t seem to know who he was.”Do you know which one is Pant?” an exasperated photographer asked me. “I thought I’ve been shooting him, but it’s actually Jaiswal!”

Virat Kohli has started his Test preparations. He’s in the nets along with India’s other senior players.

Kohli is looking sharp against some short of a length quick bowling pic.twitter.com/JcTTpza7Ga

— Tristan Lavalette (@trislavalette) November 13, 2024

Stats highlights from the first day’s play at the MCG

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Dec-20241:51

Manjrekar explains how Konstas took down Bumrah

19 years 85 days – Sam Konstas’ age on debut, making him the youngest Australian opener in men’s Tests. He’s also the fourth youngest Australian male cricketer, and the second youngest to score a fifty in men’s Tests.52 – Deliveries Konstas took to bring up fifty, the third fastest for Australia on Test debut after Adam Gilchrist (off 46 balls vs Pakistan in 1999) and Ashton Agar (50 balls vs England in 2013).66 – Number of not-in-control shots played by Australia’s batters in the first 40 overs at the MCG, but India were able to take just one wicket in this period. Since 2002, as per ESPNcricinfo’s logs, only two teams have played more false shots in a Test innings without losing more than one wicket: India (73) vs England at Trent Bridge in 2007, and England (67) vs Ireland at Lord’s in 2019.