Brisbane, Jan 12: After denting the ego of mighty Australians with their bruised and battered bodies in a Sydney epic, Ajinkya Rahane’s wounded India will take no prisoners in a ‘winners take all’ fourth Test, starting Friday on the liveliest of tracks in the series.
Australia need a win to regain Border-Gavaskar Trophy but a draw will be enough for India to retain it for another couple of years.
There are times when the human body responds differently to the adrenaline rush and the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari have given their million fans a reason to believe in their gumption that was on display in Sydney.
Jasprit Bumrah played with an abdominal strain and didn’t want to come out despite the experience was painful and Ravindra Jadeja with a broken thumb was ready to do what Malcolm Marshall did with a fractured wrist three decades back.
They battled against everybody — the racist ones in the galleries, the abusive one behind the stumps and those lethal ones with the shiny red nut that broke a few bones but could not dent the steely resolve of the Indians.
The new India that Virat Kohli so raved about, is now ready to battle a whole new set of adversities at a venue where Australia hasn’t lost a Test since 1988.
There won’t be a Jadeja and Bumrah and on one of the most difficult tracks, it couldn’t have gotten more worse for India. And insult to injury is Mayank Agarwal being hit on the forearm in the nets and Ashwin battling back spasms.
“We will take a call tomorrow.The medical team is working with all the injured players. If Bumrah is fit, he plays, if he is not fit, he doesn’t play,” batting coach Vikram Rathour said at the pre-match conference.
For Tim Paine, the series-decider couldn’t have been played at the better venue than the bouncy Woolloongabba or Gabba for fans around the world.
“From a distance it looks like it always does,” you could gauge the confidence in Paine’s voice even as he gave the news of young Will Pucovski’s shoulder injury ruling him out of playing eleven.
“We love playing here, and one of the main reasons is because that wicket. This is a good place to come and play, because I don’t have to go and look at it, I know what is going to be like,” he said and it was like warning to Indian team that looks more like a second string A team save three senior batsmen.
But Ajinkya Rahane will still smile, Cheteshwar Pujara will be uncomplaining and trust Rohit Sharma to still go for the pull shot if Pat Cummins digs one short.
There will be no Vihari in Sydney but he has set a different bench-mark for the ‘walking wounded’ and expect Rishabh Pant to play another blinder in the only way he can.
The combination has all gone for a toss and Rahane would only understand that discretion is the better part of valour.
India might just want to use the option of playing only four bowlers instead of a regular five in order to take the game deep with their batting.
If Agarwal is available, expect him to go in at number three after Rohit and Shubman Gill with Pujara and Rahane coming a notch down.
There is an option of playing Prithvi Shaw or Wriddhiman Saha in place of Ravindra Jadeja but off-spin all-rounder Washington Sundar’s name is also doing the rounds.
It’s the bowling attack that India will be worried about. Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj with just three Tests in their kitty and Shardul Thakur, who bowled all of 10 balls in his debut Test two years back, do not exactly inspire confidence.
While Rathour kept cards close to his chest, it’s more about trying to deny opposition psychological advantage by playing the guessing game on Bumrah when world knows that his participation is highly unlikely.
That too against a batting line-up where three of the top four batsmen respond to the name of David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith.
The second and third batters have shown what they can do with Indian attack and Warner is not known to fail in too many innings.
It’s a very difficult task at hand and whatever the result, this Indian team under Rahane has covered itself in glory with bare minimum resources.
In end, “No Guts, No Glory, No Stress, No Story”.
There is a story to be told and Indians are scripting it.
Teams:
Australia XI: Tim Paine (captain), David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood.
India (from): Ajinkya Rahane (capain), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, T Natarajan, Washington Sundar.
Match Starts: 5:00 am IST. (agencies)
^^^
RESEARCH-CAVE-PAINTING
World’s oldest known cave painting found in Indonesia
New Delhi, Jan 14:
Archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest known cave art — a life-sized picture of a wild pig that was painted at least 45,500 years ago in Indonesia.
The cave painting uncovered in South Sulawesi consists of a figurative depiction of a warty pig, a wild boar that is endemic to this Indonesian island.
The finding, published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, also represents some of the earliest archaeological evidence for modern humans in the region.
“The Sulawesi warty pig painting we found in the limestone cave of Leang Tedongnge is now the earliest known representational work of art in the world, as far as we are aware,” said Professor Adam Brumm from Griffith University in Australia.
“The cave is in a valley that is enclosed by steep limestone cliffs, and is only accessible by a narrow cave passage in the dry season, as the valley floor is completely flooded in the wet season,” said Brumm.
He noted that the isolated Bugis community living in this hidden valley claim it had never before been visited by Westerners.
The researchers noted that the Sulawesi warty pig painting, dated to at least 45,500 years ago, is part of a rock art panel located above a high ledge along the rear wall of Leang Tedongnge.
“It shows a pig with a short crest of upright hairs and a pair of horn-like facial warts in front of the eyes, a characteristic feature of adult male Sulawesi warty pigs,” Brumm said.
“Painted using red ochre pigment, the pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs,” he added.
The previously oldest dated rock art ‘scene’ at least 43,900 years old, was a depiction of hybrid human-animal beings hunting Sulawesi warty pigs and dwarf bovids.
It was discovered by the same research team at a nearby limestone cave site.
Basran Burhan, an Indonesian archaeologist and Griffith University PhD student, who led the survey, said that humans have hunted Sulawesi warty pigs for tens of thousands of years.
“These pigs were the most commonly portrayed animal in the ice age rock art of the island, suggesting they have long been valued both as food and a focus of creative thinking and artistic expression,” Burhan added.
The team sampled the art for Uranium-series dating, a technique to determine the age of calcium carbonate materials.
“Rock art produced in limestone caves can sometimes be dated using Uranium-series analysis of calcium carbonate deposits (‘cave popcorn’) that form naturally on the cave wall surface used as a ‘canvas’ for the art,” said Professor Maxime Auburt from Griffth University.
It was this mineral deposit that, after careful removal by Aubert, yielded an age of 45,500 years, indicating that the rock art scene had been painted sometime prior to this.
A second Sulawesi warty pig image, from Leang Balangajia, another cave in the region, was dated to at least 32,000 years ago.
The scientists have now dated multiple examples of early rock art in Sulawesi, including depictions of animals and narrative scenes that are outstanding both for the quality of their execution and rarity worldwide.
“We have found and documented many rock art images in Sulawesi that still await scientific dating,” said study co-author Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a researcher from Indonesia’s leading archaeological research centre ARKENAS.
“We expect the early rock art of this island to yield even more significant discoveries,” Oktaviana added. (agwencies)
&&&
Follow our WhatsApp channel
