Welcome to our live report of the first day of the Australia-India test from Melbourne. Join us for updates, analysis and color. You can find our traditional ball-to-ball commentary here
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1.55pm local time / 8.25am IST: Ponting’s assumption about Warner doesn’t fit 100%
Gnasher can also talk about cricket among his weather updates:
During his brief innings, David Warner did not seem so comfortable between the gates. It was always accepted that he would not be 100% fit for this game, but in the build-up it was not the main cause for concern, but the way he would go on the field. On channel seven, Ricky Ponting suggested the booming shots that Warner played, with the final result in a slip, which may have indicated he had problems.
“I think everyone knew I probably wouldn’t go 100% to the test,” Ponting said. “The only thing I hope is that he hasn’t modified it again, doing something further. It was almost from that moment that those loose shots started. So I hope he wasn’t playing in the head, I hope he is. well and hopefully we can only say that this is the way David Warner plays such a shot at the start of a test match. “
13.40 h. Local time / 8.10 h. IST: It’s a game of cats and mice
As soon as the players from India came out to warm up, it started to rain again. It’s pretty dark and gloomy at the SCG, a bit of wind and the lids come back intact. Here, from the same Pauls …
13.20 h local time / 7.50 h IST: no game yet
“The rain has stopped now and it is much stronger,” reports our meteorologist Gnasher from the ground. “The base staff and the fourth referee leave. I the covers are coming off“Referees Paul Reiffel and Paul Wilson are also looking at the conditions, the next inspection is at 13.30 local time (8:00 IST).
12.25 pm local time / 6.55 am IST: Lunch is taken
There is still no respite from the rain, so we make sense of the situation of debutant Will Pucovski during the lunch break (but I have black coffee to stay awake). Debuting after a long history of concussions, he has already faced two jumpers in the first 35 minutes of play and will now feel a kind of responsibility for scoring after the early abandonment of Warner. Remember, so far it hasn’t been a great series for openers. We’ve already seen him walk a bit to the fast bowling alleys, and he also saved a ravine for the leg after the first overs. He must wait for more short balls once the game resumes, and his state coach Chris Rogers reviews Pucovski’s recent form and how he prepares for short balls.
“When I first showed up as Victoria’s coach, he and Sammy Harper did a lot of work with tennis balls, got very close with a tennis racket, and shot at each other. Will did a lot. of work he wants to get up and roll the ball up to his thin leg. You’ll see he threw a lot of it, ”Rogers told RSN Radio. “Then it got to the games and we played SA soon and Wes Agar started the first shift and went straight to Will’s jumpers, dodging them almost throughout the first session.
“Then, after lunch, he played one of those shots and from there he never looked back. They aimed him with the short ball for most of the game and then he did it from the ninth. He would also have faced a lot of short balls and seemed comfortable doing it and the way he got up and played it made it easy.Then when he spent day three at Drummoyne, it was an awkward situation where there was nothing to gain and he just got stuck in two minds, so I hope he can learn from it. “
12.00 local time / 6.30 am IST: Still raining
I’m not going to say, “I told you so” about the rain, but it’s come back and it’s back to being “reasonably constant lightning,” Gnasher says from the ground. I forgot to mention, the fourth booking referee today is Claire Polosak, the first female officer in a male test match. He was once off the field with the umbrella and other party officials.
11.40 local time / 6.10 hour IST: the game will resume soon
The game will resume at 11.45 local time (6.15am IST), unless it rains when you read this. It looks like the fans are having a good time at the SCG.
11.15 h. Local time / 6.10 h. EST: Rain reaches SCG
Rain was expected and here it is! It is largely the playing field that is covered with the referees under umbrellas after the players leave the field of play. Andrew McGlashan from the ground: “There’s a line of showers coming out of the south. Today has been the day with the most chances of outages. The forecast for the next four days is good.” Twelve minutes after the players left, the rain has stopped and the covers are coming off.
It will be interesting to see if this will add any swing once the game resumes. Meanwhile, there has been a lot of debate on social media about the exclusion of Mayank Agarwal. Was it fair to leave him out? Vote in the following poll:
11:00 local time / 5:30 AM IST: Siraj eliminates Warner by 5
A very interesting 18 minute stay for Warner. He was running those fast singles with visible discomfort in his groin, eager to turn the strike and fall after blinking out twice in a row in front of Siraj. In the second ball of the fourth quarter, he left after one that went wide, and when Siraj threw it farther and a little fuller, Warner did not move his feet enough to get close to the ball. while chasing her, and skirted at the first slip. Meanwhile, Pucovski stays out as he walks a bit through the stumps, and got a bouncer on Bumrah’s first exit. There is no swing on this pitch, although there was some rain before the test, and some more are expected today and tomorrow. Australia 18 for 1 after the first half hour. “It looks like a really good baptismal track,” Glenn McGrath says in the TV commentary.
10.35 local time / 5.05 hour IST: Warner and Pucovski leave
Boy, will Australia be excited about the return of Warner. He is still not 100% fit after injuring his groin, but given the nature of this series and what is at stake, Australia has decided to play him, with the debut of a pair. Tim Paine said in the draw that Warner’s “great energy” will bolster his “confidence.” Not to forget, Australia has so far endured the top-scoring domestic series of the century, just ahead of the 2018-19 series, which also didn’t feature Warner. Pucovsky, on the other hand, has been around the test setup for almost a year, has a history of concussion injuries and has gone to Test XI with many races in domestic cricket. Here you can find more information about Pucovski’s journey so far.
10.10 local time / 4.40 hour IST: two more debuts in the series
After Cameron Green in Adelaide, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj at the MCG, we have two more debutants as expected: Will Pucovski and Navdeep Saini. Pucovsky received the cap from Andrew McDonald and Saini from Jasprit Bumrah. Australia have opted to fight, with David Warner replacing Travis Head and Matthew Wade coming down in the middle. For India, we already knew yesterday that Rohit Sharma will open with Mayank Agarwal as an ax and Saini will make his debut because Umesh Yadav has returned home.
Speaking of fast bowling, the Indian drummer has Jasprit Bumrah, Siraj and Saini with Combined test of 17 compared to The Australian account of 144, thanks to Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. One thing is that Australia will be excited that they haven’t had to change their attack since the first test.
10:00 local time / 4:30 IST: more reports on doubts about the fourth test in Brisbane
And we already have news coming in, even before the coin has been tossed. Here is Andrew McGlashan preparing for Australia for the Brisbane test:
Cricket Australia will seek clarification from the BCCI after further suggestions emerged that India would not travel to Brisbane for the final test, but would continue to insist it has not been informed of the concerns. And a report Thursday morning said the BCCI had officially written to CA to say they did not want to go to Brisbane. However, ESPNcricinfo understands that the updated plans for the Gabba test, following the Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney, which led to border restrictions in Queensland, were approved by the BCCI office holders on December 29 and since then no objections were received.
CA has been largely dealing with BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and it is understood he will seek further talks on Thursday.
Players are not confined to their rooms when they are in the Sydney and Brisbane team hotels, which have been booked entirely by Cricket Australia, and can be mixed in the common areas. The only difference is that the restrictions in Sydney are CA protocols while those in Brisbane are imposed by the Queensland government as terms to allow exemptions.
9.55 am local time / 4.25 pm IST: warm-up for the launch
Hello everyone and a warm welcome to the third test of this exciting series that has the level 1-1. Another test, another possible set of debuts possible (there is at least one confirmed from India), another race adjusted by the WTC points and the ICC ranking (now New Zealand is at the top), another debate about the selection, another discussion about who will go open and more. I’ll steal Tim Paine’s words and say there’s “tension starting to boil beneath the surface”.
Vishal Dikshit is a senior sub-editor of ESPNcricinfo