Former speed merchant Brett Lee reckons Australia's pace trio would hold the key during the year-end home Test series against India and is keen to figure out how much the kookaburra ball swings without saliva Down Under.
The studies that put Virat Kohli as the top brand now do not have Rohit Sharma in the Top 10. That will change quickly if he delivers the T20 World Cup next year or the ODI championship the year after.
It has taken India 10 years to finish a Test in 3 days.
Shaken by the match-fixing scandal, Indian cricket was going through a turbulent time at the start of the 21st century when Sourav Ganguly took charge of the team.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the youngest entrant in the illustrious 10,000 Test run club, Alastair Cook can challenge batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test run record. Cook became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, and the youngest overall, beating Tendulkar's record by five months by reaching the milestone at the age of 31 years and five months. Tendulkar -- Test cricket's most prolific batsman with 15921 runs -- was 31 years, 10 months 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005. "Well the big advantage that England always has is that they are always playing a minimum of 11-12 Test matches on an average in a year. In 11-12 Test matches even if you score 50 runs per Test match you are getting about 500 runs every year," Gavaskar said.
Captain Alastair Cook savoured a special moment in his glittering career after becoming the first England cricketer to reach 10,000 Test runs during the second Test against Sri Lanka in Durham.
Did Virat Kohli deserve to be replaced as India's ODI captain? Rajneesh Gupta presents all the numbers.
With the Ashes set to get underway, Australian players reflected on the prestigious series and their aim for the upcoming tournament.
Terming India's prospects as very strong in the 2015 World Cup, former Australia captain Allan Border opined that Team India do have the "skills to match the best sides in the world but they will certainly have to have more "attitude" and "self belief" to make a mark in Australia and New Zealand.
Alex Carey has yet to play a Test match. Indeed, he has played many fewer matches with a red ball than he has with white and made his name in the T20 Big Bash League. But the 27-year-old left-hander is proving to be mature, adaptable and dependable for side.
It is widely considered the greatest comeback in Test history.
Justin Langer was the foundation rock upon which Australia erected towering piles of runs during a golden era of success.
'With his passing comes the end of Indian cricket history.'
Australia's three World Cup-winning captains are unified in their belief that under-fire skipper Michael Clarke is the right man to lead the team to a potential fifth tournament victory next March.
Australian great Glenn McGrath says the handling of the 'homework gate' saga during the team's tour of India earlier this year was "pretty poor" and felt it "all blew up" in the middle of the 0-4 Test series drubbing.
The shell-shocked hosts have a week to regroup before they again engage an Australian touring party which made Virat Kohli and his team of world-beaters look quite ordinary in a 333-run first test rout inside three days.
Factbox on the fifth Ashes Test match between Australia and England, which starts on Thursday:
Sachin Tendulkar has no doubts in his mind that Dean Jones would have been one of the "most sought after batsmen" if he were to be part of the T20 generation and called him a player well ahead of his time.
The former Australian captain said Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif must be fined heavily if they are proven guilty of using banned drugs.
Here are the statistical highlights from the third day's play of the fifth and final cricket Test between India and England in Chennai.
Rajneesh Gupta presents the numbers from Day 4 of the first Test.
A guitar-strumming rocker when not keeping wickets, Australia's Peter Nevill will hope to hit the right note when he makes his surprise Test debut against England in the second Ashes match on Thursday.
Australian batsman Steven Smith became the second-fastest batsman to register 24 centuries in the Test format.
The morning after an unexpected loss, the subdued conversation is always about would India have won had...
Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq steadied the Pakistan second innings with an unbroken 113-run stand after their team appeared to be heading for a heavy defeat by losing three quick wickets in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Dubai on Friday.
'From 1989 when I started playing there would be at least 25 world class bowlers. But someone I didn't enjoy batting against was Hansie Cronje. For some reason I got out and over a period of time I realised that I am better off being at the non-striker's end'
Being told not to return home as "losers" by their country's sports minister merely reflects the passionate desire of all South Africans for a maiden World Cup triumph, captain AB de Villiers said on Saturday.
Australia's Steven Smith has become the second youngest batsman after India's Sachin Tendulkar to achieve the number-one ranking in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen following stellar batting in the Kingston Test, which Australia won by 277 runs to win the series 2-0.
Mark Waugh reckons the 25-year-old will succeed at the No 4 spot against Indian spinners.
'Captains are asked to sit, so just do it. I have done it in Faisalabad. I didn't play an ODI game for 15 months when I was probably the best performer in one-day cricket. It happens in life. The best in the world are at times shown the door'
Matthew Hayden feels the tourists do not seem to believe that they can win away from home.
Meg Lanning's Southern Stars, have been an exemplar of sportsmanship on and off the field, and have little need for the puffed-up aggression that made the Aussie men's side one of the game's least likeable.
Former Australia opener and chief coach Geoff Marsh feels that speedster Mitchell Starc's performance will be key for the home team in their upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup semi-final clash against India at the SCG on Thursday.
Less than three months ago, Aaron Finch, alarmingly down on form and confidence, actually feared he might not be chosen for the Australian squad that he was due to lead. Now, he's atop the scoring charts at the World Cup.
Warner has been in excellent touch as he scored lot of runs at the top of the order for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL
Sachin Tendulkar added yet another feather to his cap on Wednesday when he was inducted as one of the latest honourees to the Bradman Foundation. Former Australia captain Steve Waugh was the other cricketer to enter the Bradman Hall of Fame alongside Tendulkar during a gala dinner, at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground.
Former captains, including Ian Chappell and Michael Clarke, have called for the inclusion of young opener Will Pucovski in Australia's team for the upcoming four-Test series against India.
'India's strength is batting and it is under attack right now. It is time to stand up and be counted.'
Clarke has the chance to become the first Australian captain to win an Ashes series on foreign soil since Steve Waugh in 2001.
Under financial stress, Cricket Australia has already put 80 per cent of its staff on 20 per cent salary till end of June, while a handful of others, including the executives, remained on 80 per cent pay.
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