Not far from the resplendent action statue of Shane Warne bowling at the MCG, and closer to Dennis Lillee’s statue, in the nets at the basement level but open to viewing from above, Rishabh Pant was engaged in chat that lasted more than thirty minutes with Gautam Gambhir. Perhaps even more. Pant did most of the talking or so it seemed. Just as he walked away, he heard his name called out. He looked up, saw a physically-disabled kid with his parents wanting a photograph. He gestured to them to go around and come down a ramp at the level of the nets. He patiently waited for them to arrive, and was charming with the little one.
It was India’s first day of training at the MCG. Australia will assemble on Sunday evening from their respective cities, and start training on Monday. A few fans had gathered around on top, peering through the mesh-nets to catch the action below. Those eagle-eyed would have seen Virat Kohli practise leaving the ball from throw-down specialists. Not that he was leaving everything, for that wouldn’t have made sense. The throwers keep targeting his off-stump and other deliveries, before they often slipped in the balls outside-off channel. And he would leave. He did that in the previous net session too. But there was a more concerted effort to hurl more balls outside off on Saturday morning. He played a crisp straight drive and the ball bangd into the fence at the far end, past Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, stretching his legs.
The sound of trains chugging along the nearby track through the Jolimont station provided the BG for the morning. In his breaks from batting, Kohli kept fiddling with his grip. He also taped the base of his bat after jamming an outside-off yorker through point. Now and then, he looked up at the few fans peering from above.
💬💬 R Ashwin played with me like an on-field mentor#TeamIndia all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja reminisces about his partnership with R Ashwin. 👌👌#ThankyouAshwin | #AUSvIND | @imjadeja pic.twitter.com/3QGQFYztmB
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 21, 2024
Beside Kohli, in another net, was Rohit Sharma, who seems to have settled down in that one-foot-inside-the-crease stance like the old times. Ravindra Jadeja whirled away before hitting the gym at the stadium; Washington Sundar too bowled a lot. Gambhir, who stood like an umpire in his nets, called him over to offer a few suggestions, gesturing like a left-handed batsman shaping into a cover drive. He nodded earnestly, and ripped the next one across.
Later, Jadeja would front up to the media at the outfield. Had he looked up, he would have noticed the name and face of Nathan McSweeny, the Australian opener who has been dropped, lit up the digital scorecard at the arena. Beside him the stats flashed: 10 runs, 12 balls, 2 fours and strike rate of 83.33. Someone needed to tell the scoreboard handlers the news that he has been replaced by teenage sensation Sam Konstas.
On a top tier, what seemed like a corporate box balcony, a group of fans had packed themselves in. “It’s part of the MCG Museum tour,” says a security guard at the ground, staring at Jadeja who was walking for the media interaction. “That’s some hair,” says the guard.
There is no substitute for hard work.
The relentless effort behind the scenes translates into success on the field. The Indian bowlers are ticking every box as we get ready for the Boxing Day Test 🔥🔥#AUSvIND #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/ikNQjJz77b
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 21, 2024
It wasn’t just the hair that stood out from Jadeja but also his frank and witty remarks about Ashwin. “Ashwin ka [retirement news] last moment pe pata chala. Jab woh aaye tey press conference karne, uske 5 minute pehle hi pata chala, (knew it only at the last minute, just five minutes before he went to the press conference. Someone told me. Pure din hum saath mein baithe they, aisa kuch usne hint bhi nahin diya. (We were together whole day, he didn’t even give a hint!)” Then came a big smile as he added, “Ashwin ko toh sab jaante hain, uska dimaag kaisa hai.” (Everyone knows Ashwin, how his brain works!”)
‘Tension arises’
But there was some drama just after he left. The media assembled included those from India and a few from Australia. But as the security manager of the team arrived to indicate to the media manager that the bus was leaving, the media interaction was abruptly cut off. With questioners from both India and Australia yet to ask. Expectedly, though, the Australian media didn’t like the fact that not one question was allowed in English from them.
The ‘conference’ had started with a series of questions in Hindi from the Indian media. A bit of verbal argy-bargy ensued, and unsurprisingly a couple of Australian news outlets, that included the official broadcaster Channel 7’s website, carried their irate version of the events. Tagging it with Kohli’s airport episode from a day before, where he had displayed his displeasure that his kids were being shot and which was sorted out once the reporter clarified that they weren’t and no visuals would be shown.
Pressure is intensifying on India ahead of the Boxing Day test with the tourists adopting a siege mentality.
Just days after Virat Kohli’s fiery run-in with Australian media, today his teammates refused to answer questions from local reporters. @trent_kniese #9News pic.twitter.com/ILKWC305Ag
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) December 21, 2024
Post Jadeja’s media interaction, Channel 7 went with a clickbait headline: ‘Boxing Day tensions rise again after India’s latest media stunt at the MCG’. And claimed Jadeja “refused to answer questions in English”. All in a day’s work in a series between India and Australia. There hasn’t been too much drama on this tour thus far. The Kohli airport incident, India’s decision to have closed-nets in the early part of the tour, and now the Jadeja interaction.
In between, there was brouhaha over Isa Guha’s ‘primate’ comment about Jasprit Bumrah but that too died down after her apology. Maybe Yashasvi Jaiswal being termed ‘the lippy kid’ after his “too slow” remarks to Starc too. Of course, the biggest was Siraj vs Head, but that too was snubbed out quickly by both. In Australian media, especially after Head said it was all a misunderstanding and everything was “sweet” between the two, fire was put out pretty quickly.
What will Sunday bring? More juvenile nonsense or something sensible?!
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
