A still from ‘The Test’

Around halfway of the second episode of the latest season of The Test, drama erupts.

English batter Jonny Bairstow ducks a bouncer, the ball goes to the keeper and the batter walks out of the crease. Pretty much a normal thing that happens during a Test match, you’d think. But there’s tense music in the background, almost like you know something is going to happen.

And then it does. Bairstow walks out of the crease thinking the over was done, and wicketkeeper Carey has thrown at the stumps and is claiming a dismissal.

“Sort of within one ball yeah, it happened,” Alex Carey recalls in the docuseries.

The crowd at Lord’s Cricket Ground would go on to chant, “Same old Aussies, always cheating,” even as a disappointed Bairstow exits.

It’s the equivalent of an action-packed interval block in the movies, the kind that leaves you on a high as you make your way through to the bathroom, probably grinning all the way at how good it is.

The current season of The Test, a sports docuseries that follows the Australian men’s cricket team, throws up such excellent moments. Following the Bairstow runout, Alex Carey is made villain in the eyes of the English public, something that affects him mentally, which his teammate Steve Smith reveals in the documentary.

The Test almost resembles a movie made on war, because of the format’s nature to be over five days. Every day, every session has some sort of an event that makes it special, and that, at times, seeps into the next day as well, as a new battle ensues. Like the one revolving around the Aussie bowling and the English openers in Old Trafford that highlights what essentially Bazball is. For the uninitiated, Bazball refers to aggressive, ultra-positive way of playing Test cricket. It makes this format far more exciting that you’d think.

Flashbacks are seldom interesting in films, but in such sports documentaries, it provides context and adds to the drama. Like that of Travis Head, who doesn’t touch a bat for weeks due to his wedding and shows up big time at the World Test Championship against India. Or Nathan Lyon, off tour due to a calf injury – the events of him walking out to bat under such circumstances were dramatic – and watching the rest of the series with his wife in his drawing room back in Australia, while his teammates slog it out in England.

Directed by Sheldon Wynne and Adrian Brown, The Test also cleverly brings in the highs and lows of the game; case in point being how the Aussies, after being in the game in the last Ashes Test at the Oval, veered off course. Such sports documentaries can be made or broken by editing, and the fantastic editing team ensures that The Test is a good watch. It also has some neat quotes (Marnus Labuchange says, “Cricket is a game of small margins. You can feel like you’re on top and it can flip in a second”).

While Season 3 might not have the appeal of the first season of The Test, which focused on the image rebuilding exercise of the team after the ball-tampering scandal, it does have quite a few highs. One wishes that a video crew was sent to the Australian ODI World Cup campaign too, so that cricket fans got a peek into the journey of Pat Cummins’ winning team, which silenced Indian crowds in the final.

Nevertheless, this season of The Test makes for an engaging, thrilling watch, with a few lessons that could appeal to even non-cricket lovers.

The Test Season 3 is currently streaming on Prime Video

According to the ICC annual rankings, India retained their top position in ODIs and T20Is but slipped to second place in the men’s Test team rankings.

India have retained their top position in ODIs and T20Is but slipped to the second position in the men’s Test Team Rankings in the latest ICC annual ranking update issued on May 3.

India conceded the top spot in the five-day format to Australia, the reigning World Test champion, following the annual update that drops results from the 2020-21 season and reflects all series completed since May 2021.

India (120) are just four points behind Australia (124) and 15 points clear of third-placed England. South Africa are the fourth team above the 100-point mark with 103 points.

India slipped mainly because their 2-1 series win in Australia in 2020-21 has dropped from the rankings.

The order of teams ranked from third to ninth remains the same. Only nine teams are now ranked as Afghanistan and Ireland have yet to play sufficient Tests, while Zimbabwe too are out as they have played only three Tests over the past three years.

Teams need to play a minimum of eight Tests over a three-year period to get on the rankings table.

India, however, remain atop the ODI and T20I rankings after the annual updates, that weight matches completed prior to May 2023 at 50 per cent and subsequent matches at 100 per cent.

India may have lost the ODI World Cup final to Australia but have increased their lead over them from three to six points, leading the table with 122 points. There are no changes in the top 10 but Ireland have overtaken Zimbabwe to 11th position.

Third-placed South Africa have closed the gap with Australia from eight to four points, while Sri Lanka are just two points behind fifth-placed England.

The T20I rankings see Australia move ahead of England to second place but they are seven points adrift of India, who lead with 264 rating points.

South Africa are just two points behind England after leapfrogging two places from the sixth position that they had before the update. New Zealand also have 250 points like South Africa but behind on fractions, while the West Indies are at 249 points, which means that just three points separate third-placed England from sixth-placed West Indies.

In other movements, Pakistan have dropped two places to seventh, while Scotland have overtaken Zimbabwe to 12th position.

Australia’s Marcus Stoinis, during a practice session at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar K.

A fitness freak who is very particular about his food intake, Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis is travelling across India with a personal chef to ensure that he is getting a low carb diet during the ODI World Cup.

The 34-year-old all-rounder is on a ketogenic diet (high-fat, low-carb) with baked oats infused with protein one of his favourites, according to a report in cricket.com.au.

Mumbai-born Velton Saldanha, a chef trained in French cuisine, travels with Stoinis while he is in India and cooks him meals out of the Australian team’s hotel kitchens, according to the report.

“Quite a few of the Indian boys do it, that’s where I got the idea,” Stoinis told cricket.com.au’s ‘Unplayable Podcast’.

“I’ve always been quite strict with my food and all that stuff in my preparation.”

No garlic naan

The Australian team has its own chef, who oversees food preparation as they move around the country, but Stoinis has gone a step further in his pursuit of peak performance.

“Garlic naan is out. Gluten-free banana bread and shepherd’s pie with roasted cauliflower mash are in. A roast butter chicken, the intersection of Saldanha’s French training and his Indian heritage, has also been a hit,” the report said.

“Stoinis is getting by on baked oats – at least for the small carbohydrate portion of his meticulously curated diet,” it said.

“By the end of the World Cup, Saldanha might be able to sell the ‘Stoinis Oats’ as a standalone dish.”

K.L. Rahul’s recommendation

Stoinis had met Saldanha, who who has worked in fine-dining restaurants in Chicago and New York, during this year’s Indian Premier League on a recommendation from his Lucknow Supergiants teammate and India star K.L. Rahul.

Saldanha founded Mumbai’s Chutney Collective during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stoinis has struggled to play consistently in this tournament. He missed the opening match with a hamstring and quad concern. His scores in the three matches he has played so far are 5, 20 not out and 21.

“I want to play for as long as I can. I want to take control of as many things as I can through my cricketing career,” said Stoinis.

“We travel a lot and we’re obviously away from our comfort zone. We’re in different time zones. we’re in different beds, we’re in different hotels – we’re not exactly by the beach in Perth, having a coffee and that sort of stuff.”

He does not consider investing on a personal chef as waste of money.

“So I’m more than happy to invest in myself and in my environment. I don’t see that stuff, which some people do, as a waste (of money).

“I’m happy to invest in my own chef or invest my own batting coach or invest my own sports psychologist – that’s just the way I see things.”