MELBOURNE, Dec 19: The most consequential home Test of the Cummins era could begin in front of one of the MCG’s largest cricket crowds
Two flights of stairs up from the bowels of the rain-soaked Gabba where Pat Cummins was doing a post-Test radio interview on Wednesday afternoon, Ravichandran Ashwin flanked Rohit Sharma into the Gabba’s press conference room to announce his retirement. Cummins found out only moments before he put the headphones on.
Nathan Lyon hours earlier had tipped Ashwin to play both the Melbourne and Sydney Tests after the two off-spinners had engaged in a lengthy chat on the field. One of Test cricket’s greatest ever bowlers blindsiding his opponents (and perhaps his own teammates) was in keeping with the frenetic pace of this series. Travis Head, standing metres away from Cummins after the Test, admitted his first-innings ton felt like it happened two weeks, not three days, ago.
If ever there was a time for Cummins to fall back on the calm demeanour that has defined his leadership, this might be it. Boxing Day shapes as the most consequential home Test of his tenure, rivalling defining overseas duels in Lahore (against Pakistan in 2022), in Delhi (against India last year), for the World Test Championship final in London (also against India), and in Headingley (against England during last year’s Ashes tour).
The loser in Melbourne will not only have a series victory pushed out of reach, but also severely dent their hopes of making next year’s WTC decider.
A win for India in either game will ensure they will hold the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for a dozen straight years.Fittingly, a match of this magnitude is also expected to draw a crowd that could nudge the Australian Test record of 91,112 (set on day one of the 2013 Boxing Day Ashes Test) or even the country’s overall cricket high watermark of 93,013 from the 2015 World Cup final.
Amid the chaos of this series, Australia are unfortunate not to be 2-1 up. Pat Cummins labelled the Gabba one of the most frustrating Tests he’s been in charge for. India’s celebration of their last-wicket pair passing the follow-on mark on day four in Brisbane irked some in his side’s ranks.
“After play we spoke about it and were surprised about some of their actions,” Lyon told Fox Cricket. “You see the reaction, it looked to me like their top order didn’t want to bat last night if we’d been able to get them (out) and enforce the follow-on.”
The extreme rhythm of this series is spelt out by the numbers as well. If all three Tests had gone five days and no play was lost to weather, 1,350 overs would have been bowled. In reality, we have seen only a little more than half that amount (682.1 overs).
Another way of looking at it; Australia have bowled almost 130 fewer overs through three Tests than at the same point of India’s last tour Down Under. (Agencies)
