Cricket

India will enter the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Saturday with five bowlers as they look to fill the void left by the absence of pace bowler Mohammad Shami, who has been ruled out of the remaining three Test because of a fracture in his right hand he sustained in the first Test.

Right-handed batsman Gill, who had made 127 runs in the two warm-up games, will open the innings alongside Mayank Agarwal. Gill, who has played three ODIs, replaces Prithvi Shaw in the playing XI. Shaw had come under severe criticism following his failure in the pink-ball Test which India lost by eight wickets.

New Zealand won by identical 2-0 margins against both the West Indies and India in their two previous series and are third in terms of percentage points won, the factor that determines the final placings rather than total points won, following a change to the points system owing to the Covid-19 disruption.

Paine says the Australians are well aware of the danger posed by the likes of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul who could come into the Indian side as replacements for the Boxing Day Test. Australia won the first Test by eight wickets after bowling out India for 36 in the second innings. India will be led by Rahane in Melbourne after regular skipper Virat Kohli returned home to attend the birth of his child.

Some experts questioned the Indian team's lack of preparation with the pink ball after the batsmen were bundled out for India's all-time low total of 36 in the second innings of the first day-night Test against Australia and lost by eight wickets. Tendulkar, however, is not unduly perturbed, as he pointed out that only about 10 per cent of Test cricket worldwide is played with the pink ball.

The decision to include two new teams, ratified at Indian cricket board (BCCI)'s 89th Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) held in Ahmedabad, will see IPL expand into a 10-team event starting from the 2022 edition. At present, eight teams compete in the cash-rich T20 tournament, which started in 2008.

The second Test, known as the Boxing Day Test, starts Saturday and India have fond memories from the last time when they won it on a flat batting wicket to go 1-0 up in the four-match series in 2018/19.

Former India captain Bedi's decision comes just six days before a six-foot statue of late Arun Jaitley, a former DDCA president and father of current president Rohan Jaitley, is to be installed on his 68th birth anniversary inside the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

The BCCI Secretary's XI scored 128/3 while batting first, with Jaydev Shah scoring 38 and former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin scoring 37 off 22 balls. Ganguly's solitary wicket of the match was that of Shah. The BCCI organised the match a day before its annual general body meeting that is to be held on Thursday.

The former India opener said that Ashwin has suffered within the Indian team because of his forthrightness. He also took a dig at the India skipper Virat Kohli, who got permission to leave the tour of Australia to attend the birth of his child, while T Natarajan who became father during the IPL playoffs is yet to see his daughter.