Bharat Arun

Jasprit Bumrah’s 9/86 are the best match figures for an Indian fast bowler in Australia as he went past Kapil Dev's 8/109 at the Adelaide Oval in 1985. However, it was not only Bumrah who stood apart in the crowd as his other two partners Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami showed fine displays and became the highest wicket-taker by breaking a 34-year-old record which was previously held by legendary West Indies trio of Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall. While the trio’s mental strength and effort couldn’t have been demeaned, the work that went behind it shouldn’t be ignored. Bharat Arun, the current bowling coach of the Indian team, has been a giant presence in the Indian team’s success, and under him, Ashwin has mastered his craft, while pace bowlers grew in reputation with each passing day. Arun has ensured that the workload management of the pacers remains pretty good, and although he has been criticised for the failure in spinner’s workload management, he should be cut some slack for his work done in the past one and half year. Arun had applied a rotation formula for the pacers and each time, he exchanged players even though they fit to play the match. The policy ensured that players got enough support from the backroom staff when they are not on national duty and remain fresh for the bigger things.

Agarwal is a fine opening batsman in the Indian domestic cricket for Karnataka and anyone who has watched him play will vouch for it. His feet movement has always been impeccable and the way he adjusts himself while tackling the new ball is amazing. While he could think himself as a bit unfortunate for making his debut so late after two gigantic domestic seasons, he must be thanking his luck now as he got to make it on the flattest wicket of all. While his partnership with Hanuma Vihari in the first innings made way for Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara to shine, his second innings took India to a position where only one result was possible. Apart from that, while playing those two fine innings, the Bangalore boy has also ensured that India’s domestic pipeline is still one of the best and it keeps churning out players of such quality. However, Agarwal shouldn’t stop here and keep himself motivated for the bigger challenges that would come on his way in the future.

Sheffield Shield once used to be the envy of the world because that was a competition which didn't care about any reputations, international players came to play every now and then, and the quality of cricket also made a non-Australian follow it regularly. It was a feeder system which basically kept on giving to an extent that it was believed that Australia’s bench was enough to beat any team in the world cricket. However, looking at the present condition of Aussie cricket, it is safe to assume that the standard has gone down drastically. A year ago, the thoughts of including Travis Head could have given jitters to Australia, but such has been the condition of the team that he is the highest run-scorer for them so far. In a team where Jamie Cox, Michael di Venuto, Brad Hodge, Martin Love, Jamie Siddons, Michael Bevan, and Stuart Law played only a combined 30 Tests between them, Mitchell Marsh has already played 31. That rests the case. The rise of the BBL has taken the sheen away from the Shield Cricket and if Cricket Australia don’t take the initiative now, then the result will be more dreadful in the future.