“It’s still a few weeks to go before I can be 100% on the field.But these things happen in your career”.
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Kohli, who endured a poor run with the bat, made no such conciliatory attempt, saying he was no longer friends with the Australian cricketers, many of whom he would be meeting in the Indian Premier League (IPL) next month.
This has continued even in the Test series in India. “So I was a little bit disappointed by the fact the BCCI did bring that out”. The game is bigger than any individual duel, however emotive it has been.
Unlike Gooch’s England, Smith and the coach Darren Lehmann have a sound and well-resourced Australian cricket system to support the team, and the thorough Dubai preparation for this India tour is likely to be replicated on future Asian visits. Rahane, who failed in the Pune Test, battled his rusty form in the second innings in Bengaluru to forge a match-winning partnership with Pujara.
Kohli, captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, hurt his right shoulder while diving to stop a boundary during the drawn third Test against Australia in Ranchi.
Lloyd asked Kohli to take some lessons from Sachin Tendulkar on how to conduct himself on and off the field.
Kohli, who turned peacemaker in Ashwin-Anderson spat, said: “Ashwin wasn’t pleased with what he (Anderson) said in the press and he let him know without using any bad words, honestly”.
“It’s his time to captain and what if he had different views on what Kohli has”.
“All the medium-pacers, be it Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, gave us vital breakthroughs at various junctures”. Fans have grown up watching this phenomenon since The Great Sachin Tendulkar era to the time when MS Dhoni emerged as arguably one of the best finishers in world cricket.
The positives notwithstanding, the mood in the dressing room was obviously one of disappointment.
Team India ended their first innings at 332 – taking a 32-run lead – in reply to the visitors’ first innings outing score of 300. But within a few balls of getting to the batting crease, Warner and Matt Renshaw were hopping around in the fight of their lives, and neither lasted long against bowling that was as accurate as it was bruising.
Also in the final Test, Smith was caught out by an eagle-eyed cameraman as he called Murali Vijay a cheat for claiming a catch that had clearly hit the grass.
The victory sealed India’s seventh series win in a row, dating back to their triumph in Sri Lanka in August 2015.
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Rahane’s riposte, the first impressively orthodox, the second more redolent of the forthcoming IPL, said much about India’s admirable resilience in the face of a most unexpected challenge. But then, Rahane slowly grew into his role, he started making proactive decisions, he started trusting the bowlers and boy did his and his team’s fortunes turn around.
