Key events
Konstas beats Khawaja to the middle by about 150 metres. Runs out there and regards the pitch. The young and the old.
Anthems go around the ground. We’re not full yet, but well on the way to full. Mitch Starc has had a haircut. Boland has too. Marsh and Konstas have not, by the looks. The Torres Strait and Aboriginal flags fly on poles between the larger Australian and Indian national flags, which are held flat like bedsheets ready to be folded. Done, away we go.
Teams
And a big piece of news about India’s XI. I wasn’t expecting this. Gill is out so they can play two spinners, with Jadeja at six. Rohit goes up to three.
Australia
Usman Khawaja
Sam Konstas
Marnus Labuschagne
Steve Smith
Travis Head
Mitch Marsh
Alex Carey
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Nathan Lyon
Scott Boland
India
Yashasvi Jaiswal
KL Rahul
Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli
Rishabh Pant
Ravindra Jadeja
Nitish Kumar Reddy
Washington Sundar
Jasprit Bumrah
Mohammed Siraj
Akash Deep
Weather report from the ground: it is already hot out there, but it’s currently cloudy. So that’s some measure of relief at least. I suspect it will burn away soon, although there’s also a chance of rain in the forecast and a cool change later. The whole Melbourne grab-bag. I’ll tell you what is certain: Indian support. My word, the crowd outside is at least half wearing blue India shirts. Huge lines on the way in.
Australia win the toss and will bat
Huge toss to win! No surprises there, with the heat and the gusty winds blowing across Melbourne.
Drop us a post-Christmas cheerio
Tell us about your day, whether you’re at the end of it on one half of the planet, or it is already yesterday on the other. Who ate what? Who annoyed who? Who is filled with seasonal cheer? Get salty, get schmaltzy, get smoochy – whatever you like. The email line is open.
Here’s our lead-in piece on Konstas and his forerunner, Ricky Ponting.
The biggest news for Australia is the debut of young sensation Sam Konstas to open the batting. Huge challenge for him, especially if he’s called upon immediately. Although that would give him less time to get nervous, I suppose. He seems pretty confident, but walking out in front of 90,000 would have to challenge any teenage bravado.
Scott Boland is coming back for Australia replacing the injured Josh Hazlewood. Not sure what India will do yet, they always play their cards close and always seem to make a change somewhere along the line.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Happy tidings of the Yule. Now that I think about it, I’ve never thought to check what Yule means. Yuletide could be the guy from The King and I doing an album of Vance Joy covers. Regardless, what with all of those logs and whatnot, I’m going to assume that most people had a festive time. In most of Australia, Christmas was stinking hot, in the UK it’s been cold and bleh to a moderate sort of level, and wherever else you were in the world, it was something else. Or still is something else, for those on the negative side of Greenwich Mean.
Whatever the case, it is Boxing Day in Melbourne, and that means one thing. We are about to send 13 players and two umpires into the middle of the MCG to suffer in ridiculous heat all day. In Melbourne the temperature didn’t drop out of the 20s all night, it will be into the 30s by the time the toss takes place, and it will be up towards 40 degrees by the end of the afternoon. The following days will cool off.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure the ICC doesn’t have an extreme heat policy, even though the world is getting hotter. Cricket Australia does have one, where something called the Heat Stress Risk Index can be calculated to theoretically suspend games if it gets hot enough. But at this level of heat they usually just have extra drink breaks.
So, on we go. Safe to say this is a bat-first day, even though the MCG has become the best bowling pitch in the country after they renovated it for being too flat.
