From Joe Root vs Jasprit Bumrah's high-stakes chess match to the all-round brilliance of Ben Stokes vs Ravindra Jadeja, and from emerging face-offs like Shubman Gill vs Shoaib Bashir to K L Rahul's test against Chris Woakes, each duel carries weight far beyond statistics.
The India opener, who has been accompanied by girlfriend Athiya Shetty, is likely to stay in Germany for a month during his recovery period.
KS Bharat has been named as his replacement.
Boland credited his intense rehabilitation for getting him back in the national reckoning.
If KL Rahul leads Lucknow Super Giants to their maiden IPL title, he will automatically be rewarded with a spot in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup, reckons head coach Justin Langer, who wants his team's national hopefuls to "concentrate" on doing well for the franchise first.
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke believes India is in "safe hands" and has "enough talent" to trounce England, but it will all come down to how the young-looking squad will leave a mark in the series on a territory known for being "tough".
In case Rohit misses a Test match in Australia, the in-form Abhimanyu Easwaran is likely to be his cover although Shubman Gill and KL Rahul are also players with enough experience in the opening slot.
Throughout the series, Konstas had altercations with Indian players. His first major incident occurred at the iconic MCG during the Boxing Day Test when he was involved in a bumping exchange with Virat Kohli. Usman Khawaja, who was batting at the other end, was seen trying to calm things down.
All-rounder Washington Sundar was on Sunday added to the India squad for the remaining two Tests against New Zealand.
That said the pitch is going to get challenging for the batters as the game wears on.
With his repertoire of shots, he reeled away five fours and a whopping eight maximums while striking at 232.35.
Rahul, who has played most of his cricket in formative years at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, said, "From the position we were in, we were chasing 210-plus and we knew we had to go hard and attack. But, sometimes, when you do that, you lose wickets. Unbelievable, I mean it's the Chinnaswamy. I've grown up here and I think it's the stadium with most last-ball finishes.
Shubman Gill was "extremely proud" of the fight that his team put up after being down and out but rued the absence of one fifty partnership and Rishabh Pant's first innings run-out in their 22-run defeat against England in the third Test at the Lord's.
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar feels K L Rahul is captaincy material and should be groomed as a future leader of the Indian cricket team. Gavaskar made the comments after Virat Kohli announced that he would step down from T20 captaincy after the World Cup.
In a 11 second clip that has gone viral on Twitter, Goswami is seen bowling a fuller ball to which Rahul plays a neat cover drive.
Gambhir, one of the finest among IPL skippers with two titles for Kolkata Knight Riders, spoke to PTI exclusively on a host of topics including Rahul's leadership, team composition and how he intends to handle relation between Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya.
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain said India's long tail restricted Kohli and Rahul from going all out during their partnership.
Shami marked his return to ICC tournament with an exceptional five-for while also becoming the fastest Indian and the second quickest overall to reach 200 ODI wickets
Rohit Sharma's request to the BCCI for a break from white-ball cricket in South Africa despite being offered T20 captaincy has been accepted, while Jasprit Bumrah has been named his deputy for the two Tests starting December 26.
'KL and myself -- our mindsets are pretty similar and we want to take the game forward.'
'That is something I really wanted, to have six bowling options and then batting till No. 8 as well.'
K L Rahul has been ruled out of after failing to recover from injury to his right quadriceps
'I think there was a fair bit of good bowling today. Obviously there was enough in the wicket and it probably felt like it was a hardball wicket.'
Along with his ability to adapt, the high release point makes Hazlewood a tricky customer to deal with on any kind of surface, as it allows him to find that disconcerting extra bounce.
Ravi Shastri guided India to back-to-back series wins in Australia and his short advice to current head coach Gautam Gambhir is to "stay calm" over the course of five Tests Down Under and avoid knee-jerk reactions.
Varma's current rating of 832 points is the fourth-highest ever achieved by an Indian batter in T20I history, behind only Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul.
Rahul added that initially, India were looking to chase a target in the vicinity of 280-300 runs as it was a good batting track. He gave credit to the home team bowlers for dismissing Sri Lanka for 215 in 39.4 overs.
'He (Rahul) pulled his hip flexor, I guess. I do not know how bad it is'
Mitchell Starc delivered a death-bowling masterclass, helping Delhi Capitals snatch a thrilling win from Rajasthan Royals in a Super Over.
'We are pretty sorted in terms of how we are going to start in the first game (versus Pakistan).'
Nitish Rana addressed the decision not to send him out for the Super Over. He clarified that it was a collective call by the team management, and stood by it despite the disappointing outcome.
Shubman Gill dispelled all doubts about his thumb injury with a stylish fifty even as skipper Rohit Sharma kept cards close to his chest by coming in at No. 4 in India's curtailed pink-ball warm-up game against Prime Minister's XI in Canberra on Sunday.
In the Super Four stage, the Men in Blue will take on Pakistan at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.
Hanuma Vihari, part of India's back to back series wins in Australia, reckons the services of veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara will be be dearly missed when the team aims for a hat-trick Down Under later this year.
Architect of India's six-wicket win over Australia, wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul has a solid all-round game and provides stability in the middle-order, said bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.
Across five fiercely contested Tests, more than 7,000 runs were scored, including a record-equalling 21 individual centuries. Every match stretched into a gripping fifth day. The sun shone, the stands were full, and the cricket -- emotional, enthralling, and endlessly unpredictable -- captured imaginations around the world.
Virat Kohli's form in focus as India eye ODI clean-sweep over England
With their respective leaders switching camps and squads undergoing major overhauls, both Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants, under new captains, will be eager to make a strong start to their IPL campaign when they face off in Visakhapatnam on Monday.
KL Rahul hit a quickfire half-century and Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets in an over but India suffered a 36-run defeat against Western Australia in their second practice match ahead of the T20 World Cup, at the WACA stadium in Perth on Thursday.
The Men's Selection Committee has picked India's 15-member squad for the upcoming three-match IDFC FIRST Bank Test series against New Zealand.
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