 "IND vs AUS: With WTC points on line, Team India aims to make momentous Boxing Day even more memorable")
The Melbourne Cricket Ground. Gargantuan. Iconic. Boisterous. Rowdy. The Melbourne Cricket Ground. Where dreams are shaped and shattered. Where hopes soar and crash. Where Bay 13 once intimidated and incensed opponents because of its ill-behaved patrons, but which has now changed character by going in the exact opposite direction of higher-priced tickets and a strict dress code.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground. The scene of India’s first Test victory in Australia, in January 1978, by the massive margin of 222 runs. The venue where India have registered four of their 10 Test wins on Australian soil, including two on the bounce, in 2018 and 2020.
India, Australia renew storied rivalry in Melbourne
The Melbourne Cricket Ground. Where Sunil Gavaskar’s men crushed Pakistan in the final of the World Championship of Cricket in March 1985, where Ravi Shastri, the Champion of Champions, drove his Audi around the outfield, his teammates packing the inside and the top of the car in unprecedented scenes.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground. The stage for India’s crushing 130-run drubbing of South Africa in the 50-over World Cup in February 2015. Also where Virat Kohli produced that knock, an unbeaten 82, to consign Pakistan to a last-ball heartbreak in the T20 World Cup in October 2022.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground. Where Rohit Sharma’s India will renew rivalry with Pat Cummins’ Australia in the storied Boxing Day Test from Thursday, with the series on the line, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy waiting to be won and lost, crucial World Test Championship points up on offer.
IND vs AUS Boxing Day Test | Date, time, pitch report, live streaming and everything else you need to know
All tickets available to the public were sold out a long time back. Such has been the demand, however, that after a review of ‘stadium logistics’, a further 1,000 tickets were released for day one by Cricket Australia on Tuesday. The MCG’s official capacity is 100,024. If you are in Melbourne on Thursday and you aren’t at the MCG, well…
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe Boxing Day Test in this part of the world isn’t just a sporting encounter, it is also a social occasion. But don’t make the mistake of imagining that the festive air will spill over onto the field. Australia and India don’t hold their punches when they square off against each other. With so much on the line, that is not going to change one bit.
Both Rohit and Australian coach Andrew McDonald agreed that the 1-1 score line with two to play is a fair reflection of the quality of cricket both sides have portrayed. India unexpectedly bossed the exchanges in Perth, Australia bounced back at their pink-ball bastion, the Adelaide Oval, immediately. The Gabba, where India pulled off their greatest Test win four years ago, was consigned to a watery grave, but not before Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep provided a window to India’s resilience, their spirit, their spunk, their never-say-die attitude, with a last-wicket stand that staved off the follow-on.
Jasprit Bumrah . Now, where have we heard that name before? Ah, yes, with the ball. With that little round sphere, first red, then pink, then red again, that has obediently done his bidding. With 21 wickets from three Tests, average 10.90 – read that again, and savour it – he has single-handedly kept India in the contest.
True, Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed 161 in the second innings in Perth, where Virat Kohli also chimed in with an unbeaten 100. Yes, Mohammed Siraj has been an able foil with 13 wickets. Agreed, KL Rahul has reinvented himself as a Test opener with one obdurate essay after another. But it’s Bumrah that’s hogged the limelight . Sent spectators watching India’s training sessions into delirium merely by walking into the practice area. An Indian fast bowler doing this. Who would have thunk?
To Bumrah’s blue corner occupies Travis Head the red side of the ring . Fearless, brazen, risk-unaverse, aggressive. Head has accounted for 409 of the 1,138 runs scored by Australia’s batters this series – that’s 35.9% of all runs to have come from the bat. Alex Carey is the hosts’ next highest run-scorer, with 162. Head has scored his runs at a strike-rate of 94.23, with 47 fours and four sixes. If India’s think-tank isn’t hard at work figuring out ways and means to stop this juggernaut, it should be.
India aim for Rohit’s return to form, top-order stability
This Test is one of great import from the series point of view, of course, from the WTC’s perspective, needless to say, but also from a larger-picture perspective. For India, that will translate to runs from their captain , without a half-century since making 52 in the second innings against New Zealand in Bengaluru in October.
His last seven Test innings read 0, 8, 18, 11, 3, 6 and 10, the last three at No. 6 where he is batting for the first time since late 2018. Interestingly enough, Rohit’s last Test at that position before Adelaide earlier this month was at the MCG, when he made 63 not out and 5. Is that an omen?
Like Australia, India desperately need top-order stability. Runs, yes, but also the imperativeness of the top three to bat out 30-35 overs so that Kohli, also struggling for form either side of that Perth hundred, Rishabh Pant, Rohit and Ravindra Jadeja can cash in. Nowhere has the top three become more pivotal than in Australia where, a change in the constitution of the Kookaburra from 2019 and a slant towards pitches with greater assistance for fast bowlers, has led to a drastic drop in batting averages.
The MCG itself has undergone a dramatic transformation as far as the playing surface is concerned. Since India’s last Test here, it has become less batter-friendly than before, though this could well be the best batting track of the series so far. This one, with a reasonable covering of grass, isn’t as dry as some of the others, which will undoubtedly influence India’s team selection should they contemplate playing a second spinner in Washington Sundar to complement Jadeja in the post-R Ashwin era.
India have veered from their strategy of playing five full-time bowlers, perhaps because of their repeated batting implosions against the Kiwis. Their batting hasn’t inspired confidence this series, but as they chase the 12 WTC points that victory will bring, will they be tempted to return to their trusted five-bowler makeup and hope the batters don their scoring shoes?
India can practically kiss their WTC final chances goodbye if they don’t pocket full points, though theoretically, they could still be in with a shout. But that won’t be their motivation. There is a series to be won, a trophy to be retained, pride in the batting to be restored, the MCG and the home side to be conquered. A chance for Bumrah to add another glorious chapter to a stellar, stellar career that still has quite a way to go. The heat is well and truly on, and not merely because the forecast for Thursday is Melbourne is a searing 40 degrees Centigrade.
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