File image of Pat Cummins.© AFP

The ongoing unofficial series between India A and Australia A was marred by a ball-tampering controversy last week. In the unofficial first Test in Mackay, the India A players had to deal with ball tampering allegations after the on-field umpires changed the ball used by them overnight. After taking three early wickets overnight, the India A players were visibly disappointed, and were seen arguing with umpire Shawn Craig, about the ball given to resume play. While India A lost the match, former Australia captain David Warner had also questioned the decision to change the ball in the morning.

On the decision to change the ball, the umpire alleged India A of altering the condition of the cherry. 

“When you scratch it, we change the ball. No more discussion, let’s play. No more discussion; let’s play. This is not a discussion,” the umpire was heard as saying on air.

However, Cricket Australia (CA) squashed all the allegations against the India A players, saying that the ‘ball was changed due to deterioration’.

In the ongoing 2nd unofficial Test, the India A players once again caught the attention for a ball-related incident.

In a viral video, the players can be seen having a chat with umpire, informing him about something on the ball.

The commentators suggested that the substance on the ball could be either mud or white paint.

Pacer Prasidh Krishna, in general, looked a bit agitated during the chat with the umpire.

Meanwhile, KL Rahul and Abhimanyu Easwaran failed to leave a mark yet again as India A were reduced to 73/5 at the end of day two’s play in the second four-day game against Australia A at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

Previously, Australia A managed to take a 62-run lead, thanks to opener Marcus Harris making 74 in their total of 223. For India A, fast-bowler Prasidh Krishna took a four-fer while pacer Mukesh Kumar picked three wickets.

In their second innings, India A were in trouble yet again as they went from 31/1 to 56/5. Wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel will have to stage a rescue act for India A, who lead by 11 runs at the end of day two. Jurel is unbeaten on 19 while Nitish Kumar Reddy is nine not out.

(With ANI Inputs)

Jason Gillespie gave his insights on Pat Cummins and Jasprit Bumrah’s biggest strength.© AFP

File image of Steven Smith.© BCCI

Ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 between India and Australia, former skipper Ricky Ponting predicted that the Baggy Greens will dominate the Rohit Sharma-led side in the five-match series. Ponting predicted a 3-1 triumph when quizzed on the series result in August and the former Australia captain still feels comfortable with his decision after watching India’s recent series defeat to New Zealand and the loss of key pacer Mohammed Shami to injury for the upcoming tour.

Speaking with host Sanjana Ganesan on the most recent episode of The ICC Review, Ponting said the absence of Shami from India’s squad would make it more difficult for the tourists to claim the 20 wickets required to win a Test match Down Under.

“Probably more so now (than before). (Mohammed) Shami just leaves such a big hole in that bowling group. Back then (in August) there was still some conjecture about whether Shami would be fit or not. I think taking 20 wickets in a Test match for India is going to be the biggest challenge. I think they’ll bat well enough out here with the current group of batters that they’ve got,” Ponting said about Australia’s chances against India as quoted by the ICC.

Although the Aussie legend admitted that India might sneak in a win at some point in the five-match Test series, Ponting stuck by his overall series prediction.

“I think India will win a Test match somewhere through the five Test matches. But I still think now, Australia probably look a bit more settled, a bit more experienced and we know that they’re a very hard team to beat at home. So I’ll stick with the 3-1,” Ponting said.

Moving on to the players we could see in the upcoming series in Australia, Ponting was uncertain about who the top-scorer could be, identifying two potential candidates for the top of the list.

“Leading run scorer, I’m going to go – Steve Smith or Rishabh Pant,” Ponting said.

He felt that the likely move of Steve Smith from the top of the order back to No.4 increases his chances of doing well in the Test series.

Smith’s brief stint as opener in Tests hadn’t been quite successful and ahead of the series against India, it was all but confirmed that the Aussie lynchpin would move back down the order.

“I think Smith, the fact that he’s moved back down from opener to No.4 probably makes it feel like he’s got more of a point to prove…that maybe he shouldn’t have gone up to open in the first place and that No.4 is his spot and where he should have probably been the whole time and where he probably finished his career now,” Ponting stated, while also not neglecting the possibility of Pant pushing Smith at the top of that list.

“With Rishabh back in the side and probably coming into bat in the middle order when the ball’s probably lost a bit of its shine and a bit of its hardness and the form that he’s in, I’ll go for him as one of the leading run scorers as well,” the ICC Hall of Famer added.

Among the bowlers, Ponting backed experienced seamer Josh Hazlewood to top the wickets chart.

While Ponting mentions all three players in Australia’s strong pace attack, he felt that neither Mitchell Starc nor Pat Cummins might play all five Tests, unlike Hazlewood.

“I think Hazlewood out of the Australian quicks, is right at the moment, is probably at the peak of his powers more than the other guys. So I’ll go with him for the leading wicket-taker,” Ponting said.

The first Test between India and Australia begins on November 22. The crucial ICC World Test Championship series is set to be decisive in identifying the potential finalists of the WTC cycle with Australia and India currently at the top of the table.

Former New Zealand cricket team fast bowler Simon Doull believes that Australia have come up with a ‘clever’ plan to counter Jasprit Bumrah during the Border-Gavaskar Test series. In a recent discussion on JioCinema, Doull pointed out that Bumrah will be the ‘biggest threat’ for Australia in the series and he thinks that the hosts are trying to ‘cook’ him with the scheduling. According to the ex-NZ star, Australia will tire out Bumrah with the first Test taking place in the ‘heat’ of Perth followed up by the pink-ball Test in Adelaide – something that may force India to rest him in the middle of the series.

“What Australia have done smartly is scheduling. They know that while batters are going to be key in some shape or form, their biggest threat is Jasprit Bumrah. So they have gone with the three hardest and fastest surfaces, plus the Pink-Ball Test. They are trying to cook Bumrah. They will cook him in the heat of Perth, where he will have to bowl a lot of overs. Then he is going to have to go and bowl a lot of overs in that second pink-ball Test match in Adelaide. And then you’ve got to go to Brisbane where generally, first up, the seamers are quite good as well,” he said.

“So we’re going to cook Bumrah in the first two, three Test matches, make sure he bowls a lot of overs. And then they’re going to have to make a change. They’re going to have to go to someone else. So I think the scheduling from Australia’s point of view has been quite smart because very rarely do they start a series in Perth,” the former New Zealand fast bowler added.

Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar on Monday said that if India captain Rohit Sharma is not playing in the first Test against Australia in the upcoming marquee series, then Jasprit Bumrah should lead the side for the entire tour Down Under.

He said Rohit, whenever he comes in, should participate in the series only as a player.

The Australia tour for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins on November 22 in Perth, and Rohit is likely to miss the first match as his wife is expecting their second child. He is expected to join the team from the second game of the series.

Rohit is, however, not sure about the schedule yet.

In the absence of Rohit, Bumrah is likely to captain the team in Perth.

“It is important for the captain to play the first Test match. It’s different if he is injured, but if he is not available, then the deputy leader will be under a lot of pressure,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.

“I have been reading that Rohit Sharma might not play the first two Tests of the Australia series. I feel that, in that case the selection committee should appoint Jasprit Bumrah the captain of the side for the entire Australia tour, and tell Rohit Sharma that you will participate as a player in this series. For the first Test match, Rohit Sharma has to be there.”

(With PTI inputs)

The recent India A vs Australia A warm-up match made a lot of noise due to ball-tampering allegations against the visiting team. During the match, the umpires informed India A players that the ball has been changed as it was tampered with. Umpire Shawn Craig brought the development to Indian players’ notice during the first unofficial Test. In a statement, Cricket Australia said that the ball had to be changed “due to deterioration”, while both the managers and the captains were informed of the decision before the start of the day’s play.  

Now Fox Cricket, has released a video of the exact stump mic conversation. 

Here’s how it went

Shawn Craig: When you scratch it, we change the ball. No more discussion. Let’s play. This is not a discussion.

Ishan Kishan: So we are going to play with this ball?

Craig: You’re playing with that ball.

Ishan: That’s a very stupid decision.

Craig: Excuse me. You will be on report for dissent. That is inappropriate behaviour. Because of your actions we changed the ball.

Kishan: Thank you!

Following that, a discussion took place in the Fox Cricket panel. The panel agreed that the way the Indian players showed dissent proved the ‘might and force of India’ in world cricket.  

David Warner‘s wife, Candice, was also part of the discussion. She said, “It just goes to show the power of India and how strong they are. A lot of these umpires want to be part of the IPL.”

One of the panelists then added: “India run the game. Every dollar that is raised in cricket, is raised by India. This change over the last few decades has been extraordinary.”

According to a report in The Indian Express, a player, requesting anonymity, denied tampering allegations, suggesting a “nail from the sideboards may have brushed the ball.”

According to Cricket Australia’s code of conduct, players involved in the ball tampering incident could be handed bans if the team is found to have intentionally changed the condition of the ball.

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“Any action(s) likely to alter the condition of the ball which are not specifically permitted under Law 41.3.2 may be regarded as unfair,” Cricket Australia’s code of conduct reads.

After the controversy spiralled up, Cricket Australia issued a statement saying, the ball change happened “due to deterioration.”

Seasoned batter K.L. Rahul and wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel have been added to the India A squad for the second four-day game against Australia A, starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Thursday. IANS had reported on Monday that Rahul and Jurel would link up with the India A team after leaving for Melbourne following the third Test against New Zealand, which the Rohit Sharma-led side lost by 25 runs to suffer a historic 3-0 defeat.

Sources had also said that the decision to send Rahul and Jurel to play for India A team was made with an eye to give the duo some game time ahead of the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, starting in Perth on November 22. It is also believed that Rahul might open alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran, as the Indian team would be keen to see who would be the best person to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Perth Test.

The vacancy at the top comes especially after captain Rohit Sharma said at the end of the Mumbai Test that he could be unavailable for the series opener at Perth due to personal reasons.

While Easwaran has slammed 27 centuries in 100 first-class matches, with an average of 49.40, Rahul has recently batted mainly in the middle-order but comes in with the fact that he’s scored Test centuries in England, South Africa, and Australia, the country where he made his Test debut in 2014.

Rahul played three Tests in the Indian home season, with his last game coming via the hosts’ series opener against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. After making scores of 0 and 12 in that game, where India lost by eight wickets, he didn’t feature in the remainder of the series.

On the other hand, Jurel could be taking up wicketkeeping duties from Ishan Kishan, who is leading India A. Jurel didn’t get a game to play in the five Tests India played at home, though he did get to feature as a substitute wicketkeeper in the first Test at Bengaluru after Rishabh Pant hurt his knee.

Previously, Prasidh Krishna was added to the India A squad as a replacement for Yash Dayal, who was named in India’s T20I squad for the four-match tour of South Africa, starting on November 8 in Durban.

The first four-day game saw India A, captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad, suffer a heavy seven-wicket defeat at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay, Queensland, with left-handed batters B. Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal along with pacer Mukesh Kumar being the standout performers.

India A squad for 2nd first-class game: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc), Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Baba Indrajith, Ishan Kishan (wk), Abishek Porel (wk), Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (wk)

Legendary Indian cricket team skipper Sunil Gavaskar believes that the upcoming Test series against Australia can decide the futures of senior cricketers like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. Questions were raised about the star players following India’s humiliating 0-3 Test series defeat against New Zealand at home. Both Virat and Rohit struggled massively in the three-match series and their performances were criticised by fans as well as experts. In an interview with India Today, Gavaskar said that there are a lot of young talents who will be looking for an opportunity and the much-anticipated series against Australia can turn out to be the final chance for some senior players.

“I think it could be a tour which could decide a lot of futures. And I’m hoping that that question, you know, solved itself in Australia because they are, at an age and at a stage in their careers, where there will be a second ring of which we will be looking to get an opportunity,” said Gavaskar.

The future of some senior India players will be decided after the tour of Australia as the BCCI evaluates the shocking 0-3 drubbing against New Zealand at home while rolling out a structured phaseout policy before the start of the next WTC cycle, according to a report by PTI.

There is a high possibility that the five-match Test series against Australia could be the final one for at least two of the four seniors among Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who are in the last leg of their international careers.

An informal discussion could take place between BCCI bigwigs and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, head coach Gautam Gambhir, and skipper Rohit about the way forward for an aging team.

“Stocks will be taken certainly and it could be of informal nature since the team leaves for Australia on November 10. But this has been a huge debacle but, with the Australia series round the corner and the squad already announced, there won’t be any tinkering,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

“But if India doesn’t qualify for the WTC final in England, one can be rest assured that all four super seniors won’t be on that flight to the UK for the ensuing five-Test series. In any case, all four have likely played their final Test at home together,” the source added.

(With PTI inputs)

File photo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli© AFP