Key events
5th over: Australia 18-0 (Head 7, Weatherald 4) Taskin with more late movement, jagging a ball back into Weatherald’s knee roll, a keen appeal but it was going over and Umpire Dharmasena is rightly unmoved. The bowler goes full, trying to get through Weatherald in a similar way to how England had some success against him in the Ashes – with him falling over to the off side – but the radar is awry and it slides away for four byes.
4th over: Australia 13-0 (Head 7, Weatherald 4) Hasan Mahmud nearly pockets Head as a meaty leading edge loops over the bowler but short of mid off. The bowler then beats Weatherald all ends up with a ripper that seams back and looks like it skimmed the off bail. Weahterald aims a booming drive at the final ball but connects only with hot and humid Darwin air.
3rd over: Australia 12-0 (Head 6, Weatherald 4) Tidy over from Taskin who lands it on a postage stamp for five in a row before blotting his copy book ever so slightly with a drift onto the pads that Head whips to leg for a single.
2nd over: Australia 11-0 (Head 5, Weatherald 4) Hasan Mahmud shares the new nut, he took four wickets in the warm up match against the CA XI and he looks dangerous here early on. Weatherald gets off the mark with a thick edge for four wide of the cordon and is then beaten by an absolute doozy that shapes in and nips away late. Play that! Ricky Ponting thinks Weatherald is standing taller in his crease but there are still plenty of moving parts, including a backlift that bobs back and forth like a souped up maneki-neko. Will the technical adjustments bring him luck and prosperity?
1st over: Australia 4-0 (Head 4, Weatherald 0) Taskin Ahmed starts with the ball for Bangladesh with Travis Head on strike. The first ball is on the moolah and respected by Head with a forward defence. Ah, that didn’t last long. Taskin pushes the next one a bit too full and a bit too wide and it is duly lashed through the covers for four by the great moustachioed one. Taskin is back on task for the rest of the over though, finding a good spot on off stump with a bit of nip back into the left handed Head off the pitch. Bangladesh need a couple of early scalps to get into this match.
The players line up and the anthems are duly dusted off. Righto, lets do this.
As a side note, David Warner has arrived in Darwin dressed as a pocket sized Mick Dundee. “Call that a pull shot? This is a pull shot”
Teams:
Australia: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Beau Webster, Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud
An early look at Australia’s batting card this morning then, local boy Jake Weatherald will be feeling the nerves as he attempts to cement his place at the top of the order. Marnus will also be looking to get some runs under his belt to quieten a few grumblings and rumblings about his output in Test cricket of late.
The mercury is set to touch 31 degrees in Darwin today with a clammy 80 per cent humidity. The pitch looks true albeit there might be a touch of moisture and movement for Bangladesh’s bowlers to exploit early on. Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto says as much at the toss and says he is “honoured and excited” to be leading his side in a Test series in Australia.
Australia win the toss and choose to bat first
The coin falls Australia’s way and they will bat first. Pat Cummins says he and his men are “buzzing”* to get going after a seven month break.
*
Preamble
James Wallace
Test cricket in Australia in August? Yes please.
And so it begins. Over the next 12 months the Australian men’s Test team will play 20 Test matches (21 if they make the World Test Championship final) in a year that will likely define an era.
Much has been made about the wizened age of the current Aussie outfit -with only Cameron Green under the age of 30 in the likely starting XI against Bangladesh in Darwin today. This is not a team that is preparing for the future, but it is one that could win a hell of a lot of Test cricket in the next 12 months and yah-boo to whatever follows. Pat Cummins intimated he is all about the here and now in his pre-match comments:
We don’t look too far ahead. We as a group are quite good at just being quite present, not thinking too far ahead and moving on from one game to the next. For us at the moment, it’s all Bangladesh this series.”
The ‘Fab Four’ are reunited too – the ever present and ever impressive (just ask England’s batting card…) Mitchell Starc is rejoined by Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, the first time the quartet will line up together in over a year. No questions about the golden quality of the bowling then but a few question marks over the Aussie batting order with plenty of scrutiny on the aforementioned Green and Jake Weatherald at the top of the order.
Bangladesh haven’t been Down Under for a Test series since 2003 and Darwin hasn’t hosted a Test match since 2004. Play begins at 10am local time and 10:30am AEST, the teams and the toss are imminent. As ever, please do get in touch as we go along. Shall we?