Australia vs India: Men’s Fourth Cricket Test Day One – Live | Australia cricket team

On December 26, 2024By Littum

Key events

2nd over: Australia 0-0 (Konstas 0, Khawaja 0) Now India need quality from the other end. Some support for Bumrah. It started coming in Brisbane, before last day’s rain. Siraj with the new Kooka and he hits Khawaja with a good one, Khawaja plays on top as he has done so often while coming out of this series. And again, fourth ball, sparring, kangaroo style, bounce and movement. Khawaja survives over.

1st over: Australia 0-0 (Konstas 0, Khawaja 0) There is a really good lip curl from Konstas on close-up cam waiting for Bumrah. The crowd goes silent in anticipation … and sighs as he leaves the ball. A great jerking action, shouldering the arms over the top of the ball and pulling his bat around to return down the pitch.

Plays and misses at the next one, a pearler that goes off the pitch. Bumrah does heaps early. Draws another leaf third ball, but the fourth and fifth are lovely. Beaten, beaten again, both times drew Konstas into the defensive shot before nailing past the rim. Perfect seam position, upright and then shrinking away.

And the sixth ball the same again! Just missing the edge. Bumrah agitated but does not go through with his appeal. Haven’t thrown an in-ducker in it over, I wonder if he’s going for an extended setup.

Konstas beats Khawaja to mid on by around 150 metres. Running out there and watching the pitch. The young and the old.

Sam Konstas runs to the middle on his Test debut against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Photo: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Hymns go round the earth. We are not full yet, but well on our way to full. Mitch Starc has been cut. So does Boland. Marsh and Konstas have not, by the looks of it. The Torres Strait and Aboriginal flags fly on poles between the larger Australian and Indian national flags, which are kept flat like bed sheets ready to be folded. Done, here we go.

Team

And a big news about India’s XI. I didn’t expect this. Gill is out so they can play two spinners, with Jadeja on six. Rohit goes up to three.

Australia
Usman Khawaja
Sam Konstas
Marnus Labuschagne
Steve Smith
Travis Head
Mitch Marsh
Alex Carey
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Nathan Lyon
Scott Boland

India
Yashasvi Jaiswal
KL Rahul
Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli
Rishabh pants
Ravindra Jadeja
Nitish Kumar Reddy
Washington Sundar
Jasprit Bumrah
Mohammed Siraj
Akash Deep

Weather forecast from the ground: it’s already warm out there, but it’s currently cloudy. So that’s at least some relief. I suspect it will burn away soon, although there is also a chance of rain in the forecast and a cool change later. The whole Melbourne grab bag. I will tell you what is certain: Indian support. My word, the crowd outside is at least half wearing blue India shirts. Huge lines on the way in.

India’s fans show their support before play on the first day of the fourth Test in Melbourne. Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Australia win the toss and strike

Huge throw to win! No surprises there, with the heat and blustery winds blowing across Melbourne.

Send us a cheerio after Christmas

Tell us about your day, whether you are at the end of it on one half of the planet, or it is already yesterday on the other. Who ate what? Who annoyed whom? Who is filled with seasonal cheer? Get salty, get sloppy, get smoochy – whatever you like. The email line is open.

Here’s our introductory piece on Konstas and his predecessor, Ricky Ponting.

The biggest news for Australia is the debut of the young sensation Sam Konstas to open the batting. Huge challenge for him, especially if he is called up immediately. Although it would give him less time to get nervous I suppose. He seems pretty confident, but walking out in front of 90,000 would have to challenge any teenage bravado.

Scott Boland comes back for Australia and replaces the injured Josh Hazlewood. Not sure what India will do yet, they always play their cards close and always seem to make a change somewhere along the line.

Local fast bowler Scott Boland has a key role to play in Australia’s attack for the Boxing Day Test. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP

Preamble

Geoff Lemon

Happy news about Christmas. Now that I think about it, I never thought to check what Yule means. Yuletide could be the guy from The King and I doing an album of Vance Joy covers. Regardless, with all the logs and whatnot, I’d guess most people had a festive time. In most of Australia Christmas was stinking hot, in the UK it has been cold and bleh to a moderate level and wherever else you were in the world it was something else. Or still something else, for those on the negative side of the Greenwich Mean.

Either way, it’s Boxing Day in Melbourne and that means one thing. We’re about to send 13 players and two umpires into the middle of the MCG to suffer in ridiculous heat all day. In Melbourne, the temperature didn’t drop out of the 20s all night, it will be in the 30s when the toss takes place, and it will be in the 40s by late afternoon. The following days will cool down.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure the ICC doesn’t have an extreme heat policy even if the world is getting warmer. Cricket Australia has one where something called the Heat Stress Risk Index can be calculated to theoretically suspend play if it gets hot enough. But at this heat level, they usually just have extra drink breaks.

So we go. Safe to say this is a bat first day even though the MCG has become the best bowling ground in the country after they renovated it to be too flat.