Last year this time, Lokesh Rahul would be perfecting his pickup stroke over midwicket in the Bangalore nets.
Joseph Burns would be enjoying a quiet Christmas and heading to the Gabba nets to fine-tune his impressive back-foot game.
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Two young men who have never been to a Boxing Day Test themselves – even as spectators – find themselves pitted against each other as opponents in the biggest sports occasion of the game.
It’s only natural that the nerves would be jangling. Burns walked out to the middle in the midst of raucous cheers of a 70,000 crowd, egging him on as if he belonged to Victoria.
He defended his first delivery calmly and got off the mark with a pleasing drive. He then showed his confidence against spin by playing the lofted shot against Ravi Ashwin who was in the midst of an impressive spell.
Nathan Lyon still remembers Burns destroying him during his imperious knock of 183 versus New South Wales. The selectors Mark Waugh and Trevor Hohns watched the innings with intent and Joe’s name was inked in after it to bat at 6 for the Test side.
A rasping late cut down to the third man fence had Mathew Hayden – who was commentating – uncomfortable. Haydos reckoned that Burns would be better served by playing straight early in his innings.
Just when Burns looked to be going good, he misjudged a short delivery from Umesh Yadav and under-edged it to Dhoni. Unlucky you might say, but that was not a good shot to play early in the innings.
For the fans who were waiting for a turn-around in the second innings, it was disappointment again. Burns looked solid but played a rash cut of Ishant’s bowling to edge it behind for 9.
He has shown enough promise in this level but needs to grind it out to really establish himself. He has come into this side on the back of really good numbers in the Sheffield Shield and needs to take the opportunity given at Sydney.
If he does, he could be on the plane to England.
Rahul’s case was even worse. He was someone who was handpicked by the legendary Rahul Dravid to succeed in Australian conditions – even before being named in the squad.
He had to warm the benches for the first two tests as Shikhar Dhawan continued to underperform. When he got the opportunity, it was at number 6, not in his usual spot as an opener.
When he walked out to bat, India were in a comfortable position. He just needed to knock it around and give the inform Kohli the strike.
Instead he looked awed by the occasion. Dropped trying to slog Nathan Lyon out to Sydney, he skied the very next delivery, and the Australians don’t often miss out second chances.
The batting strength of India is much much stronger than Australia and this is what makes Rahul’s case difficult. An impressive second innings knock will shore up his place at 6 in the team for now and with the axe looming on Dhawan, he is well positioned to replace him at the top.
Both these young kids are in the team by the weight of their runs in the domestic competitions.
They deserve an extended run to find their feet at the Test level. If they do so, we ll be watching them comforting another set of nervous debutants in the next Boxing Day Test when these two teams clash.
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