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Australia XI: 1 Travis Head, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Todd Murphy, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Matthew Kuhnemann.
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Rohit Sharma tosses the coin and Smith calls correctly. “We’ll have a bat,” says the Australia captain.
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Namaste cricket lovers and welcome to Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat for day one of the fourth and final Test between Australia and India in the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. I’m Angus Fontaine and I’ll be your eyes and ears for the next few hours.
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The series ledger stands at 2-1. That’s remarkable given Australia were so comprehensively outplayed in Nagpur and Delhi and went into the Indore Test without the injured David Warner and Josh Hazlewood and also missing captain Pat Cummins, who had flown home to a family crisis. Yet under the bold leadership of Steve Smith, and thanks to a lovely first innings 80 by Usman Khawaja, 11 brilliant wickets from Nathan Lyon and a nerveless run chase by Travis Head, Australia won by nine wickets.
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Now it’s India under pressure. The home side must win in Ahmedabad to regain some honour, but most importantly, to secure a place in the World Test Championship against Australia in London. As if that weren’t challenge enough, both sides walk onto Narendra Modi Stadium today in front of what is expected to be the largest Test cricket crowd in history – a 100,000-plus attendance that would usurp the current record of 91,112 for the 2013-14 Ashes at the MCG.
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So, in every sense, there’s plenty to play for.
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As it was for the first three Tests, the pitch has been a major talking point. Or in Ahmedabad’s case, the pitches. Not content with rolling out spin-friendly surfaces to suit their attack and dismantle Australia’s left-handers (a plan that backfired on the Indore wicket later given a “poor” rating by the ICC), India had two pitches ready for this Test and only decided yesterday which it would be.
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It adds yet another pinch of spice to what Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese calls “an affectionate but fierce sporting rivalry”. Albo will be in the throng today, joining India PM Modi to celebrate “75 years of friendship through cricket”. The two leaders will visit the India-Australia Platinum Hall of Fame in the stadium before meeting the players ahead of the national anthems.
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Albanese will be at the Ahmedabad colosseum for about an hour before moving on to other commitments in Mumbai and Delhi. Modi will stay on to do some TV commentary, no doubt revelling in the record crowd at a stadium that bears his name but also the giant photo of he and Albanese on the sight screen.
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That said, of all the people here today, VIPs and otherwise, the most important characters are the 11 men on either side who will fight out this Test match. They will be on the field shortly and we’ll have a veritable banquet of ceremonies and traditions: team announcements, coin toss, anthems and meet and greet.
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It’s gonna be weird, but wonderful, so stay tuned.
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Key events
12th: Australia 40-0 (Head 19, Khawaja 10) Almost exhausted! Khawaja stroked the lovely two and walked three steps to the next ball from Ashwin, flipped his wrists nonchalantly to turn it sideways, and moved on. But a short defender stopped him, and as he rushed to collect and throw, Khawaja realized the danger, turned and rushed home. If the throw had been accurate, it would have been gone. Fatal error in concentration by Usman!
11th: Australia 38-0 (Head 19, Khawaja 8) FOUR! Travis Head braced himself on Yadav’s third ball, his lumberjack wrists piercing the ball well out of the center and all the way to the fence. He also has a chance for a fifth by throwing it on a square leg backwards, but he can’t break the field. This time it breaks! Head comes out for a wide half volley and hits the next boundary with it.
10th: Australia 30-0 (Head 11, Khawaja 8) Bowling change! Ravi Ashwin enters. On the third stem there is a great appeal, but on the fifth stem and everyone knows it. Khawaja needed reprimand. She puts her feet on her feet, moving on to the next few, playing the virgin.
9th: Australia 30-0 (Head 11, Khawaja 8) Shami stays at the gate and Gray Nicholls from Travis Head freaks out. No sound other than “Ooooh” from the bowler and the crowd as the ball passes safely into Bharat. Head faced 26 balls for his seven. This is around the point where he opened his arms and faced the bowlers in the second inning of the Indore chase, taking 45 of 27 balls. AND BANG! he seems to have pulled the trigger again, going in line to hit Shami past the fielder in the middle and all the way to the boundary.
8th place: Australia 26-0 (Head 7, Khawaja 8) Umesh Yadav is still furious about the last catch he dropped. It was a beautiful ball too, bouncing off the length and catching Head in a dilemma. Finally, Head moved forward slightly, then backward slightly as the ball lifted and hit high on the edge of the bat. Bharat didn’t need to move, so he didn’t, but the gauntlets were too slow to take advantage of the opportunity. Khawaja takes two from above.
7th place: Australia 24-0 (Head 7, Khawaja 6) How expensive will this lost catch be? If there’s one cricketer you don’t want to rely on luck and play with a sense of immortality, it’s Travis Michael Head. It can take away a test match from you very quickly. Khawaja rubs one to get Head to attack, but doesn’t throw caution to the wind and deflects it with a sad smile. The Albanese Prime Minister walks away smiling, throwing lots of thumbs up at the crowd.
6th place: Australia 23-0 (Head 7, Khawaja 5) A great field stops a four! Travis Head came out on Umesha Yadav’s first ball and gave it some grunt, but another dive save from deep half saves the border. India may have said goodbye this morning, but saved two sure fours with dive defenses. There is no help for this! Head pulls it out of his hip pocket and sends it to the rope. Great shot of a South Australian looking to get it moving. But it’s ahead of the fifth… it’s a simple chance for a man in gloves… but Bharat misses it! DROPPED! It went through his gloves and hit his chest. Not sure what KS had for breakfast, but it didn’t do him any favors – eight bye and dropped catch in half an hour!
5th: Australia 17-0 (Head 1, Khawaja 5) Big swing! great lady! Shami got another ball to bounce off the stump and twist to slide. Head chased him with his stick, but his feet didn’t follow him, and eventually his arc was too steep for any bat to hit him. The third ball from the over is straight and Head finally gets some willow on one by driving hard inside, but good field diving keeps him on one. The ball without the ball and the ball with the dot finish the fifth.
4th: Australia 15-0 (Head 0, Khawaja 5) Umesh Yadav delivers another virgin while Australia’s top scorer remains India’s KS Bharat, who lost eight byes in four overs.
3rd: Australia 15-0 (Head 0, Khawaja 5) Shami returns under the watchful eye of Prime Ministers Albo and Modi. There is not much chat between the leaders, but friendly sporting rivals, both men focused on cricket. Friendship through cricket is the banner under which they meet. And they both applaud Khawaja’s fifth single. Albanese, however, is the only one to applaud four farewells from the last ball. The invert flew past the inside edge of Head and beat keeper Bharat on the rebound. More goodbyes! Gloves won’t be happy.
2nd: Australia 10-0 (Head 0, Khawaja 4) So many people have beaten the batters so far, with four byes, a bye leg and a wide, taking Australia into double figures in the first round. The second is Head facing Umesh Yadav and he’s alert, moving back and forth to find a groove and read on that pitch. Yadav’s fifth ball is wide and Head hits it but stays too low for him to contact. The last one is a leg down and Head loses the chance to get a good clip. Virgin but sloppy.
1st over: Australia 10-0 (Head 0, Khawaja 4) Australia out of reach… with wide Mohammed Shami. But he soon gets it right, focusing on Travis Head’s stump of leg. Appeal without conviction but only Shami was interested and Head runs to say goodbye while he continues. Good sauce! Shami’s fourth ball starts wide, Khawaja misses it wider and ended up being the widest ball in the series, breaking through the first and second slips and running to the limit of the third man. Khawaja takes a four from fifth as he breaks through the cordon. A lively start!
It’s time for the anthems… Advance Australia Fair first. The baggy greenskin boys take off their hats and wrap their arms around each other. It’s great to see Or shoulder to shoulder with Smith singing with all his heart. Now “Jana Gana Mana” for India. No contact between players and PM this time. They stand alone, but together, with their hands at their sides and, at the climax, with their hands folded in thanks.
Prime Ministers leave, footballers stay…
We talk a lot about tonight’s crowd, potentially the largest ever for a one-day cricket test (although the stadium record stands at 101,566 when the Gujarat Titans beat the Rajasthan Royals in last year’s Indian Premier League final).
For those who don’t know what we’re talking about, here’s a primer…
We get the first glance at the pitch and – shock! horror! – There’s green on it. This does not mean, however, that there is no kryptonite underneath. But it bodes well for the batters, who collectively average 20.74 this series (compared to 41.36 in 2008 and dropping sharply each series thereafter).
Will Travis Head bring his battle ax to this first session and do a bouncing pyrotechnics show for the prime ministers and this record (?) audience? Head was great to watch in the Indore chase. He had five runs from his first 26 balls in Indore but then shook the saber to finish on 49-of-53 with half a dozen fours and a wonder six to bring Australia home in style.
For those who are late, here’s a sneak peek from Geoff Lemon…
While prime ministers keep their captains’ hands up, Australia’s national team card holds no surprises. They traded an unchanged XI while India brought in fast chiropractor Mohammed Shami and rested Mohammed Siraj.
Team compositions
India XI: 1st Rohit Sharma (captain), 2nd Shubman Gill, 3rd Cheteshwar Pujara, 4th Virat Kohli, 5th Shreyas Iyer, 6th Ravindra Jadeja, 7th KS Bharat (wk), 8th R Ashwin, 9th Axar Patel, 10th Umesh Yadav, 11th Mohammed Shami .
Australia XI: 1 Travis Head, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith (captain), 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Todd Murphy, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Matthew Kuhnemann.
Australia will win the toss and strike
Rohit Sharma flips a coin and Smith calls correctly. “We’ll have a bat,” says Australia’s captain.
An interesting start to the test that sees prime ministers Albanese and Modi sidestep the line in a rolling scene that is sort of a car mashup of Mad Max Fury Road and Iron Throne (but with cricket stumps instead of swords). I think that’s a nice metaphor for political life, but both leaders are cheerful enough to wave to the crowd. Is this a record turnout? We’ll find out soon…
Preamble
Namaste cricket lovers and welcome to Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat on the first day of the fourth and final test between Australia and India in the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. I am Angus Fontaine and I will be your eyes and ears for the next few hours.
The series book stands at 2-1. It is remarkable considering Australia were so comprehensively beaten in Nagpur and Delhi and went into the Indore Test without the injured David Warner and Josh Hazlewood as well as the missing captain Pat Cummins who flew home due to a family crisis. But under the bold leadership of Steve Smith and thanks to Usman Khawaja’s marvelous first innings of 80, Nathan Lyon’s 11 brilliant goals and Travis Head’s stress-free pursuit, Australia won by nine goals.
Now India is under pressure. The hosts must win in Ahmedabad to regain some of their honor, but most of all to secure a place in the World Cup against Australia in London. As if that wasn’t enough, both sides head out to the Narendra Modi Stadium today in front of arguably the largest crowd in Test cricket history – over 100,000 spectators, which would usurp the current record of 91,112 in the 2013-14 Ashes at the MCG.
So in every way there is something to play for.
As with the first three Tests, the pitch was the main topic of discussion. Or in the case of Ahmedabad pitches. Unsatisfied with developing rotation-friendly surfaces to match their attack and dismantle the left-handed Aussies (a plan that backfired against the Indore wicket, later given a “poor” rating by the ICC), India had two pitches ready for this test and only decided yesterday, what will it be.
It adds another pinch of spice to what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls “a tender but fierce sporting rivalry.” Or he will be in the crowd tonight joining India’s Prime Minister Modi to celebrate “75 years of friendship through cricket”. The two leaders will visit the India-Australia Platinum Hall of Fame at the stadium before meeting the players ahead of the national anthems.
Albanese will be at the Ahmedabad Coliseum for about an hour before moving on to other engagements in Mumbai and Delhi. Modi will stay to do some TV commentary, no doubt reveling in the record-breaking crowd at the stadium that bears his name, but also the giant photo of him and Albanese on the viewfinder screen.
That said, of all the people here, VIPs and others, the most important characters are the 11 men on both sides who will be fighting in this test match. Soon they will be on the pitch and we will have a real banquet full of ceremonies and traditions: team announcements, coin toss, anthems and welcome.
It’s going to be weird but wonderful, so stay tuned.
