Virat Kohli

Former India skipper MS Dhoni earned the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade. Steve Smith was declared the ICC Test cricketer of the decade.

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.

Kohli scored 134 runs in the three T20I matches India last played against Australia. Rahul, on the other hand, scored 81 runs in the three innings in the series which the Men ion Blue won 2-1. Meanwhile, New Zealand opener Tim Seifert and fast bowler Tim Southee have attained career-best positions in their respective rankings after playing important roles in a 2-1 series win over Pakistan.

As Kohli and Anushka Sharma are expecting their first child, the batsman requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for paternity leave. The BCCI obliged and Kohli was set to play only the pink-ball Test.

Shami was hit on his bowling arm by fast bowler Pat Cummins on Saturday, the third day of the first Test that saw India fold for 36. He is likely to be ruled out of the Test series. Kohli will return home to attend the birth of his first child.

Kohli's innings of 74 & 4 in the Adelaide Test, which India lost by eight wickets, has enabled him to gain two points, whereas Smith's 1 & 1* lost him 10 points in the table. Marnus Labuschagne's innings of 47 & 6 in a low-scoring match have pushed him to a career-best 839 points. Whereas, captain Tim Paine's player-of-the-match innings of 73 not out has lifted him with a career-best of 33rd place with 592 points. His previous best was 45th in December of 2018.

Kohli will return from Australia with four scores of fifty in seven international matches and eight innings on the tour of Australia. His debut year, 2008, when he was picked to the national side after leading India under-19 team to a World Cup title, was the last time he went a calendar year without a century.

Kohli, who took over as regular skipper of the Indian team in 2015 in Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, had led India in a 2-0 defeat in the two-Test series in New Zealand this year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in February-March. They lost the first Test at Wellington by 10 wickets and the second at Christchurch by seven wickets against Kane Williamson's boys. They lost the Adelaide game on by eight wickets Saturday to complete a hat-trick of losses.

Kohli will leave for India after this game to attend the birth of his first child. He, however, expressed confidence that the rest of the boys will perform well to make a comeback in the series.

"Everyone has got great plans against the best players...that is why they are best players because they can adapt. They can change what you are doing and Virat is certainly one of the best if not the best in the world," said Paine.