Keeping a lid on emotion will be nearly as important as executing gameplans for both India and Australia when the world's top two teams continue their captivating series with the third Test in Ranchi on Thursday.
'I had a good two months in India with the Indian Premier League and we are really excited about this tournament'
Captain Steve Smith raised a composed century to push Australia to a 22-run first innings lead in the second Test against Pakistan but the home side's hopes of pushing their advantage were washed away by rain on day four on Thursday.
'The past few days I have found something ... I have found my hands which I am extremely excited about.'
The blockbuster series will be a survival of the fittest as Australia look to avenge successive losses on home soil when they go head-to-head from Friday.
Rohit is on a paternity break and will miss the series-opener. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is captaining the Indian team in his absence.
While others have faded somewhat recently, Kohli has been burning brightly, and pulling ahead of his peers.
'Not taking away any credit from India, but when they won in Australia, there is no doubt that Australian cricket was going through a turmoil and there were problems in their dressing room'.
Steve Smith and David Warner may wake with some relief on Thursday as they greet the final day of their ball-tampering bans
How the world reacted to Smith, Bancroft and Lehmann
Images from Day 1 of the first Test between Australia and Pakistan, in Brisbane, on Thursday.
Australia led England by 12 runs at the end of a tense and fluctuating second day to leave the final Ashes Test at The Oval on a knife-edge on Friday.
After escaping a 39-run victory over Pakistan in the Gabba Test, Australian skipper Steve Smith on Monday said the "game was a bit close for his liking". The hosts struck Pakistan's last two wickets quickly to clinch win before tea on day five of the opening day and night Test of the three-match. "I've lost all my fingernails, I think," Smith was quoted as saying by news.com.au. "It was a bit too close for my liking. Some game of cricket wasn't it?"
IMAGES from the match between Australia and The Netherlands, played in New Delhi on Wednesday.
All-rounder Aaron Hardie will travel with rest of the Australia squad to India as cover for Sean Abbott and Nathan Ellis.
Indian batting stalwart Virat Kohli and Australia's Steve Smith would be more than keen to stamp their authority in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series in which runs would be "at a premium", feels Australian great Matthew Hayden.
Australia's Steve Smith, on Friday, felt Ajinkya Rahane will do a good job as skipper in the probable absence of Virat Kohli.
Warner is still living with the leadership ban while accomplice Steve Smith happens to lead Australia
Images from Day 1 of the first Test between South Africa and Australia in Durban on Thursday.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain believes it's time the cricketing world changes the moniker 'Fab Four' to 'Fab Five' by including Pakistan's Babar Azam in the same league as Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson.
Aaron Finch has been dumped as Australia's captain in the shorTest form of the game and replaced by Test skipper Steve Smith just a month before the start of the World Twenty20.
Former Australian captain Smith underwent an operation in January to repair a ligament in his right elbow while he was serving his 12-month international ban for ball tampering that ended last month.
Former Australia captain Steve Waugh is annoyed in the manner a section of people are being critical of Michael Clarke's captaincy.
Will India drop Rohit for the Sydney Test and put Kohli on notice? Or will the team management grant the senior pros a final chance to redeem themselves?
Finch is happy that both Smith and David Warner have done incredible work during their time off the field which is showing off
There seems to be no love lost between India and Australia players as visiting skipper Steve Smith, on Monday, appeared to have used cuss words against Murali Vijay after the home team opener claimed to have taken a catch that was deemed not clean.
Australia captain Steve Smith shook off a sickening blow to the back of his head and notched up his 14th test century, earning the praise of his team mates and New Zealand opponents at the end of the second day of the second test on Sunday. Smith was on 78 shortly before tea when he was hit by a Neil Wagner bouncer and dropped to his knees, immediately prompting gasps from the crowd at Hagley Oval. Australia are still mindful of the death of their team mate Phillip Hughes, who was killed in late 2014 after being hit by a bouncer in a first class match, and fellow centurion Joe Burns said there was real concern when his captain dropped to the pitch. "It certainly always a concern when you see someone get hit in the head, it got him quite flush as well," Burns told reporters after Australia finished the second day on 363 for four, just seven runs adrift of New Zealand. "Fortunately the medical staff was out there very quickly, they gave him the all clear. Luckily the tea break was around the corner so he could sit down for 20 minutes and let the shock settle."
Glenn Maxwell pulled out of RCB's previous match against Sunrisers Hyderabad stating that 'physical and mental toll probably just wore me down a little bit'.
Smith and Warner have returned from year-long bans following a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa which also prompted Lehmann to step down as coach of the side in March last year.
Smith top-scored with 73 not out for Rajasthan Royals in their relatively meagre total of 139 for three in Jaipur.
The pair will face England in their World Cup match at Lord's on June 25 and are also likely to endure hostile reception during the Ashes, which begins at Edgbaston on August 1.
Before the IPL 2021 qualifier 2 game between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Delhi Capitals at the Sharjah cricket stadium on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, DC's Australian star Steve Smith and KKR's Kiwi Head Coach Brendon McCullum were spotted in this strange pose.
Pakistan's experienced wicketkeeper-batter Sarfaraz Ahmed laid out the team's plans to ruin Australia's star batter David Warner's farewell Test series.
Boland troubled India throughout the game with his incisive bowling, not allowing the famed Indian batting line-up to breathe easy at any point
The truth of the matter is that India lost their second successive WTC final on day two of this encounter when they collapsed to 71/4 in response to Australia's first-innings total of 469.
A place in the ICC ODI World Cup final once again eluded the South Africans as they went down to Australia by three wickets.
Australia coach Darren Lehmann has praised captain Steve Smith's handling of an outburst by Mitchell Starc that cost the left-arm quick half his match fee from the first Test against New Zealand.
England struggled with dropped catches, including those behind the stumps by Jonny Bairstow
Steve Smith's unconventional technique will warrant a slightly wider line from Indian bowlers, the iconic Sachin Tendulkar said, urging the pacers to target the 'fifth stump' to blunt the redoubtable batsman during the upcoming series in Australia.
Sydney Sixers' all-rounder Steve Smith said his team is lucky to sneak into the Champions League Twenty20 final after fortunes swung like a pendulum during their semi-final against Titans on Friday.
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