Hanuma Vihari's role as an opener is a stop-gap one and he will be given enough opportunities in his preferred middle-order spot should he fail at the top, assured chairman of selectors MSK Prasad.
The BCCI is planning to replace the official kookaburra ball with SG white for India's limited overs matches at home.
'We can't be happy with just one Test match. We will not be satisfied with just one Test. Yes we are happy about this victory but this is something we need to build on. We literally have nothing to lose'
Pakistan pace great and former captain Wasim Akram has declared Australia the favourites to win the much-anticipated Test series against India in December-January although he foresees a close contest between the two evenly-matched sides.
India will next play mighty Australia on Sunday.
After 15 years of failing to win an Ashes Test series in England, Cricket Australia have decided to give players more experience with the Dukes cricket ball by using it in their domestic first class competition from next year.
Kookaburra has agreed to withdraw its graphite-reinforced bat from all first-class cricket by October 1
Saha said that they haven't yet checked how much movement is on offer as far as pink ball is concerned.
The Australian bat manufacturer Kookaburra have agreed to the immediate voluntary withdrawal of those bats.
'It will be a bit challenging (for the players) to set the body clock'
Former captain Rahul Dravid is confident that the Indian team under Virat Kohli will 'peak during next few months' as they go into the World Cup in England as one of the tournament favourites.
The new "Ricky Ponting Kahuna" was developed for the start of the Test series on Thursday.
The Australian Cricketers' Association says the pink ball is not ready for day-night Tests and have cautioned administrators not to rush into the concept.
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.
Overwhelmed that the Australians devised a short ball strategy against him, Indian batsman Shreyas Iyer says it can best be tackled by adopting a counter-offensive approach and taking advantage of the field placing.
'I think personally the home country should have the right to schedule matches as it sees fit and start them at whatever time of day they want'
A clinical first-half performance from India saw them breeze past South Africa by 5-2 margin to qualify for the semi-final of the men's hockey competition at the 20th Commonwealth Games.
'In cold weather conditions, when you are not sweating at all, how do you use sweat?'
Appointed coach of the national team for the tour of Zimbabwe, Sanjay Bangar says the upcoming limited overs fixtures against the minnows will be a good opportunity for India's young cricketers to prove their mettle in international cricket.
'I am not sure why you have to worry about saliva or perspiration ... if you are not confident about the two-week period proving enough that you are free of COVID-19, you should not be playing'.
The white-ball games that were held in Sydney indicated that the deck was a flat one and express pace comes in handy on such surfaces.
368 of James Anderson's 575 Test wickets have come on home soil, where the Dukes ball has been the default during his long career.
'There could be a law where you can say from the 15th over or the 20th over, you can give the wax polish to the bowlers.'
Former India captain and CAB president, Sourav Ganguly, is working overtime to get everything in order at Eden Gardens, which is set to host the country's first pink-ball multi-day cricket match under lights. With drone flying over him under the dazzling Eden floodlights, the iconic lefthander was seen shooting promotional with the pink Kookaburra. "Eden Gardens will hold the first day-night (four-day) match in India. It has given us many moments to celebrate, now it's getting ready to host yet another moment to remember," Ganguly said in the promotional. Later talking to media, Ganguly, who is also the BCCI technical committee chairman, said, "Pink ball is the future... This will be the ultimate form of Test cricket. What will be the use of doing something which will have little interest left."
Australian TV network Channel Nine is mulling over using pink-coloured lacquered balls in the proposed night Test matches, which could reportedly become a reality in three years.
'I think if you can't shine the ball, that takes away swing bowling, that takes away reverse swing bowling and I just don't want to give batsmen another reason to score runs'
Former England captain Michael Atherton wants to see the gameplan employed by Indian pace attack against an unorthodox batsman like Australia's Steve Smith when the two teams square off at the end of the year. Atherton, one of the most respected voices of world cricket believes that India's world class pace attack comprising Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma makes it an even battle for the visitors.
For skipper Virat Kohli, the primary aim will be to get an idea of his core group of players going into the ICC T20 World Cup in October.
India's Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday admitted that playing day-night Tests is an altogether different challenge for the batsman as the pace and visibility of the pink ball is very different from the traditional red ball.
Cricket Australia has confirmed it will use Dukes balls, which are used in England, instead of the locally produced Kookaburra brand for the second half of the domestic Sheffield Shield in a bid to better prepare for the away Ashes series next year. The balls behave differently through the air and off the pitch, with Australia's inability to play the moving ball seen as one of the reasons why they have failed to win an Ashes series in England since 2001.
Select games will also be streamed live on the MyCricket Facebook page to a global audience, including one of the semi-finals and the grand final on Monday, June 8.
The second Test pitch led to some sort of criticism from former players like Michael Vaughan and Mark Waugh and the duo termed the pitch as "substandard".
Off the back of the spectacular success of the inaugural day-night Test last month, Cricket Australia has today announced an additional day-night round of Sheffield Shield cricket this summer.
Sachin Tendulkar faced six deliveries for raising funds for Bushfire charity
Pakistan need to cash in on India's middle-order vulnerability, says Akram
With only two training sessions possible under lights before the day/night Test at the Eden Gardens starting November 22, the Indian team is trying to make most of the time at their disposal.
The all-rounder also speaks of how coach Ravi Shastri has inspired him and the challenge of opening in Test matches.
World No 1 Australia reached the final of the Champions Trophy hockey in Auckland on Thursday, scoring a fine 4-2 win over the Netherlands in Pool C.
There are no half measures for fit-again New Zealand pace spearhead Trent Boult who is ready to challenge India captain Virat Kohli on his return to international cricket during the two-Test series starting in Wellington on Friday. Boult was out of action for the past six weeks due to a fracture on his right hand sustained during the Boxing Day Test against Australia and missed out on the limited-overs leg of the India series.
The opening day of the Hero Hockey World League Final witnessed a major upset as lower-ranked Argentina put up a spirited display to outclass London Olympic silver medallist Netherlands 5-2, while world number two Australia eked out a narrow 3-2 win over Belgium in Pool B at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Friday.
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