Ind vs Aus: 10 unknown facts about Australia’s Test team- Billed as one of the fiercest rivalries in cricket history, Australia is once again ready to host India with the first Test slated to Test kickstart in Adelaide on December 17. History has been created while several records have been shattered each time the two teams lock horns.
With just a couple more days to go for the Adelaide pink-ball Test, InsideSport brings you 10 unknown and interesting facts about the Aussie Test team that you shouldn’t miss out
1. Justin Langer gave up Australia coaching job due to mental stress
Australian cricket coach Justin Langer has revealed a health scare last year left him feeling “seasick and drunk” and almost forced him to quit.
The 50-year-old, who is preparing for a four-Test series against India starting in Adelaide next week, said tinnitus, vertigo and vestibular migraines struck out of the blue during the World Cup in England.
He initially thought it was a tumour in his ear, like his father developed 25 years earlier, but brain scans in England and later back home ruled that out.
t is thought that the middle finger of the bowling arm is vital in generating outswing. However, looking at the ball which Australia’s Pat Cummins bowled to get Joe Root out in the 4th Ashes Test, one would be hard-pressed to believe that the pace merchant misses the top portion of his middle finger.
Cummins, one of the leading pace bowlers in the world based on current form, was around three years old when he lost part of his finger. His sister accidentally slammed the door on his finger, taking about a centimetre off the injured finger.
If one looks closely at his bowling hand, it can be seen that the middle finger of his right hand is of the same length as the index finger.
3. Highest Successful Run Chase (Australia)
Australia have the highest successful run chase record when they chased a mammoth score of 342 at Perth in 1977. The second-best run chase then takes a dive to 233 where India chased the target losing 6 wickets at Adelaide in 2003. The third-best run-chase is surprisingly just 130/6 by Australia in 2014.
4. Tim Paine and his football connect
As a boy, Paine was considered good enough to make the Australian Football League (AFL). Elder brother Nick is a former footballer in the Tasmanian Football League, while uncle Robert Shaw is a former Essendon footballer
Lyon has made his name as one of best Aussie spinner of all-time. When it comes to Test Cricket, there is no one like Lyon in that Aussie dressing room. The way the right-handed cricketer has performed in the previous few years is quite commendable.
However, it is a matter of fortune that Lyon is representing Australia on the cricket field, otherwise, he would have been working at the Adelaide Cricket Ground as a ground staff and Australia would have lost a gem of a bowler in Red Ball Cricket
Moises Henriques was born in the footballing city of Funchal in Portugal. His father Alvaro was a Portuguese professional footballer. Henriques and his family immigrated to Australia when Moises was barely a year old.
Marnus Labuschagne on Sunday became the first like-for-like substitute in the 142-year history of Test cricket after Steve Smith was ruled out of the remainder of the second Ashes Test in Lord’s after being diagnosed with concussion caused by a blow to his neck from England seamer Jofra Archer on Day 4 on Saturday.
The right-handed batting all-rounder, who bowls leg-breaks as well, became Test cricket’s first-ever concussion substitute who will be allowed to bat in Australia’s second innings.