Aiming at the stumps should be the way forward for Australia's quicks against India to take advantage of the uneven bounce on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood said on Monday.
The much talked about young duo of Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant will also be seen in action for India 'A' during the two-day warm-up match against Bangladesh, starting in Hyderabad, on Sunday.
Riding on Samson's record-breaking unbeaten 212 off just 129 balls, Kerala posted a mammoth 377/3 on the board and restricted Goa to 153/3 after play was called off due to inclement weather.
Former champions South Zone have virtually qualified for semi-finals after reducing West Zone to 156 for 6 in on the penultimate day of their four-day Duleep Trophy match in Chennai on Saturday.
'If you look at his numbers in the past 3 years, he's head and shoulders above the rest.'
Chesteshwar Pujara displayed his appetite for a big score with a superlative unbeaten 256 as India Blue piled up a mammoth 693 for six in their bid to outbat the Reds on the second day of the Duleep Trophy final.
Senior opener Shikhar Dhawan appears to be a doubtful starter for the first Test against South Africa, starting January 5, due to an ankle injury.
India have won the first two Tests by comprehensive margins -- by 304 runs in Galle and an innings and 53 runs in Colombo.
The BCCI has allowed the Tamil Nadu players participating in the ongoing Duleep Trophy to play for their respective franchises in the inaugural edition of TN Premier T20 League (TNPL). The players are allowed to join their TNPL squads in case they are not picked in the playing XI and can also travel back during the non-match days in the Duleep Trophy taking place in Greater Noida.
Opener K L Rahul missed out on a hundred while captain Cheteshwar Pujara struck a solid fifty to steer India 'A' to 221 for six on a rain-affected first day of the first 'unofficial' Test against Australia 'A', in Chennai, on Wednesday.
Former champions South Zone progressed to the semi-final of the Duleep Trophy cricket tournament by pipping West Zone by virtue of a 313-run first innings lead after their four-day quarter-final ended in a draw in Chennai on Sunday.
Unmukt Chand has been appointed India A captain for the upcoming ODI tri-series involving Australia A and South Africa A starting in Chennai on August 5.
Birthday-boy Abhimanyu Mithun savoured a rare hat-trick as Karnataka lifted the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a 60-run victory over Tamil Nadu in a rain-hit final, in Bengaluru.
Young chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav kept the opposition batsmen on tenterhooks with a maiden five wicket haul as he took India Red on the cusp of an outright victory against the Green team in the inaugural Day/Night Duleep Trophy encounter in Greater Noida on Thursday. Chasing a mammoth victory target of 497, the Green team was tottering at 217/7 at the end of penultimate evening with another 280 runs to win the match. Suresh Raina was at the crease batting on 35.
'The world is yet to watch him, show his prowess as a batter, but given the chance he will do a great job.'
Only ten overs were possible on the second day of the Duleep Trophy final and, in the brief session post tea, North Zone reduced South to 33 for 2, at the Nehru stadium, in Kochi, on Friday.
Pragyan Ojha bagged an impressive five-wicket haul as India 'A' dismissed Australia 'A' for 268 before extending their lead to 154 runs by the end of the third day's play in the first unofficial cricket Test, at the M A Chidambaram stadium, in Chennai, on Friday. At the close of play, the hosts were 121 for 3 in their second innings.
If KL Rahul is fit, Abhinav Mukund will be expectedly left out, a strange coincidence because he was the original back-up opener in this Test squad ahead of Shikhar Dhawan.
It was an inauspicious start to the inaugural Day/Night Duleep Trophy match with a major floodlight malfunction grabbing more attention than Pink ball making its first class debut in India. A power failure saw two stoppages in play with the second one leading to lights going off completely in a couple of floodlight towers. There was a total 78 minutes of interruption due to power tripping in two towers in two separate phases.
Former India pacer Karsan Ghavri has been appointed as the coach for the Saurashtra team for the upcoming season of Ranji Trophy.
A talented Central Zone team led by Piyush Chawla is aiming to come out firing all cylinders when it squares off with an equally combative South Zone side in the final of the Duleep Trophy, starting in New Delhi, on Wednesday.
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah produced his career-best spell in first-class cricket as Gujarat staged a sensational comeback to beat Jharkhand by 123 runs and reach their second ever final of the Ranji Trophy cricket Tournament. Bumrah finished with figures of six for 29 and alongside veteran pacer R P Singh plotted the downfall of Jharkhand, who were skittled out for 111 in their second innings after being set a target of 235 runs on day four of the semifinal.
Rahul Dravid, head coach of the India U-19 ICC World Cup-winning outfit, received Rs 2.43 crore as professional fees from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the six-month period ended December 31, 2017.
Rahul down with fever ahead of first Test
Boosted by the arrival of their new coach Ravi Shastri, the Indian team departed for Sri Lanka on Wednesday high on confidence for a long tour featuring three Tests, five ODIs and a lone T20 International, starting on July 26.
Skipper Vinay Kumar took five for 34 as defending champions Karnataka skittled out Tamil Nadu for 134 on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament final, which saw 14 wickets tumble at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Delhi lost their second game in a row after their star studded batting line-up, including the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir, failed to fire against Himachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
To keep their minds off the Pune disaster, the team went on a hike at Tamhini Ghat on Monday, and the trek to the Western Ghats seemed to have brought out their inner Platos and Ramanujas.
India A put on a dominant performance as they raced to 91 for one after Bangladesh declared their innings at 224 for eight on the first day of their two-day warm-up match in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Chahal, who has been an automatic choice in the limited overs format has not played any first-class cricket since December 2016 (against Haryana in Ranji Trophy), but the Indian team management and especially skipper Virat Kohli has indicated that he wants the wiry leg-spinner for five-day matches also.
Yuvraj Singh feels it moved a bit more than SG Test ball while Robin Uthappa's observations varied from colour change to lack of reverse swing as the first set of inputs on the much talked about 'Pink ball' Day-Night experiment in the Duleep Trophy came to the fore.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Wednesday.
India 'A' will play a one-day tri-series involving Australia 'A' and South Africa 'A' followed by two four-day matches against the hosts.
Virat Kohli's participation in the fourth and deciding Test match against Australia, in Dharamsala, hangs in balance even as young Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer has been included in the team.
Kumble felt the ICC's proactive approach helped bring down the number of bowlers with suspect action in the last two years.
Responsible batting by young Tamil Nadu all-rounder Baba Aparajith and talented Karnataka batsmen Manish Pandey to guide South Zone to 213 for three at stumps on the day one of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final match against West Zone in Chennai.
Saurashtra seamers Jaydev Unadkat, Shaurya Sanandia and Chirag Jani shared seven wickets among them to bundle out Haryana for 140 in their second innings and lift their team to an innings and 31-run victory on the third day of their Group B Ranji Trophy match, on Sunday.
Factbox on the four-Test series between India and Australia, which starts at Pune on Thursday:
Senior cricketers Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina will lead India Red, India Blue and India Green teams respectively in the Duleep Trophy to be played at Greater Noida International Cricket Stadium from August 23 to September 14. The four-day tournament will be played for the first time with pink ball and under lights.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel on Saturday wreaked havoc recording a career-best List A figures of six for 43 as Gujarat beat Tamil Nadu by 31 runs to set up a title clash with Gautam Gambhir-led Delhi in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy One-Day tournament.