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MELBOURNE : While India frets about Virat Kohli's lean run ahead of the blockbuster test series against Australia, the hosts have their own batting quandary in the form of Steve Smith.
Nathan McSweeney has been tasked to open on his Australia debut despite not being a specialist in that position but he remains unfazed ahead of his big test in the series opener against India beginning on Friday. McSweeney was picked in the squad for the first Test ahead of regular openers including Marcus Harris. The 25-year-old got a national call-up following a decent outing against India A earlier this month. He bats at number three in domestic cricket. He faced the formidable trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the Australia nets here on Monday and looked in control.
As India gears up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, all eyes will be on the out-of-form superstar batter Virat Kohli, for whom the Australian soil has been a happy hunting place over the years and has seen him dominate the hosts on multiple occasions, both as a player and a captain. While Virat has been hyped and celebrated in Australia as a superstar batter, in the past, he had the weight of runs and consistency to justify the festival-like atmosphere that comes into being the moment he lands on Australian soil. However this time around, Virat is not only fighting for form, but for his legacy in Test cricket and his spot amid a massive possibility of transition after this ICC World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
Veteran Australian opener Usman Khawaja backed his new opening partner Nathan McSweeney, urging him to play his own game against India in Perth rather than trying to ape David Warner, who was a "special player" in his own right. Approaching his 38th birthday, Khawaja, a veteran of 73 Tests with nearly five and half thousand runs and 15 tons, also believed that needing to score runs at a quick clip is nothing but an urban myth, and advised McSweeney to just "repeat the process" which has worked for him till date.
Australia batter Usman Khawaja has laughed off the subject of Nathan McSweeney's strike rate of 41.92 being lower than his in Tests 48.3 and expressed belief that the young all-rounder is ready to take up the job left for grabs after David Warner's retirement. The 25-year-old South Australian skipper will make his Test debut against India in Perth's first Test starting next Friday and set to be slotted in as the opener alongside Khawaja for the five-Test series against India.
MELBOURNE : Australia's Usman Khawaja said his new opening partner Nathan McSweeney should not feel the need to imitate the quick-scoring approach of David Warner in the test series against India.
Australian media channel Fox Cricket's poster for the upcoming Test series between India and Australia has sparked a massive controversy on social media. The poster, featuring Pat Cummins and Virat Kohli, was aired during the third ODI encounter between Australia and Pakistan on Sunday. Social media users were quick to point out that while the Australia captain Cummins featured in the poster, Kohli was there for India in place of skipper Rohit Sharma. Fox Cricket will be broadcasting the five-match Test series and fans quickly started criticising the channel for snubbing Rohit in the poster.
Former Australian skipper Tim Paine picked up young batting star Sam Konstas as a replacement for opening batter Usman Khawaja in Tests if the veteran hung up his boots. Paine was speaking on SEN as Konstas participated in the two-match unofficial Test series against India A. Konstas first taste of major success was securing the ICC U19 World Cup title win with Australia this year. In the tournament, Konstas scored 191 runs in seven innings at an average of 27.28, including a century.