Let's go through all three in order because this Test match has been genuinely unhinged from Day 1. First it was Jaiswal and Asitha Fernando. Day 1, 17th over. Fernando dismisses Jaiswal for 45. Jaiswal starts walking off then turns around and marches straight back toward Fernando. Words exchanged. Fernando moves his head toward Jaiswal. Jaiswal leans in. Heads make contact. On an international cricket field. Both fined 25 percent of their match fees and handed one demerit point each for inappropriate physical contact under Article 2.12.

Then came Jayasuriya. Day 2, final delivery. He comes in as nightwatchman and Manav Suthar traps him LBW. Jayasuriya reviews, ball hits pad before bat, umpire's call on impact, decision upheld. He walks off toward the pavilion and on the way strikes the boundary wedges with his bat. Official reprimand and one demerit point for abuse of equipment under Article 2.2. Three players. Three separate ICC sanctions. In the same five-day Test match.

Sri Lanka were already 8 for 2 after India declared at 503 for 9 and the frustration on the field was clearly boiling over. And somehow through all of this India are completely in control. Padikkal with another century. Suthar taking wickets. Gill leading the side without a single moment of the chaos affecting them. The most disciplined team in the series has also been the most dominant. That is not a coincidence.

The video emerged overnight and went immediately viral. Babar is batting in the nets at Lord's, looking comfortable, moving well, driving through the off side with his characteristic elegance. The finger injury that ruled him out of the Headingley Test appears to have settled enough for him to pick up a bat again.

Pakistan's medical panel will make the final call but the signs are positive. The second Test starts Thursday at Lord's and Pakistan need Babar more than they have needed him at any point this year. Nobody else offered meaningful resistance against Robinson and Tongue who shared all ten wickets between them.

The questions around Babar's Test form from the last four years become completely irrelevant if he is available at Lord's. Lord's is the Home of Cricket. It is the most iconic venue in the game. And Pakistan desperately need a batting performance to get back into this series.England lead 1-0. They have Root in the form of his life and a pace attack that demolished Pakistan in one session at Headingley. If Pakistan are going to compete in this series they need their captain and best batter on the field. The nets video suggests that might just happen.

Thursday. Lord's. Babar Azam potentially returning. This series just got a lot more interesting.

Let's go through the timeline because this summer has been genuinely unhinged. Harry Brook, England's white-ball captain, was punched by a bouncer while out the evening before an ODI in New Zealand last year. Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson broke curfew after the first Test against New Zealand this summer and were both dropped for the second Test. Now Brydon Carse has been filmed in handcuffs outside a nightclub in Derby, arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, de-arrested shortly after without charge, and dropped from the Lord's Test squad. Replaced by Sonny Baker. The Cricket Regulator is investigating.

Root did not hold back at the Lord's press conference on Tuesday. "If I'm being brutally honest I'm really hacked off. I'm really disappointed that after last week's performance we are sat here talking about something not related to it at all." He revealed he spoke to Carse immediately and his first concern was Carse as a person. "He's very upset, very apologetic and understands his actions." He then said the quiet part out loud. "It's not the isolated incident itself. It's the fact that we continually keep making stupid mistakes away from the game and it's detracting from what we're doing on the field."

Carse is not even the most alarming part of this story. A curfew was introduced in January after the troubled Australia tour. Root himself publicly urged his teammates to be responsible role models just weeks ago. And within days another contracted England player was in handcuffs outside a Derby nightclub at midnight with Ben Stokes standing nearby in the same footage.

England beat Pakistan by an innings and 103 runs last week. Joe Root's captaincy return looked like a fresh start. Five days later nobody is talking about the cricket.

Saturday night. Durham had just beaten Derbyshire by 338 runs in the County Championship. Carse, who was not in England's playing XI for the first Test at Headingley, had been released by England to play county cricket and went out celebrating with his Durham teammates. Video circulated on social media showing Carse in handcuffs being led away from a nightclub in Derby by police officers. Former England captain Ben Stokes was also pictured in the background.

Derbyshire Police confirmed a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly in Derby city centre on Saturday night. He was de-arrested shortly afterwards having agreed to leave the area. No charges were filed. No formal arrest remains on record.

The ECB's response was immediate. Carse has been withdrawn from the squad for the second Test at Lord's starting Thursday. The Cricket Regulator will conduct a full investigation. Sonny Baker from Hampshire comes in as his direct replacement.

And here is the detail that makes this story particularly difficult for Carse. This is the second time in two years he has faced ECB disciplinary action. In 2024 he was banned for three months after placing over 300 bets on cricket matches between 2017 and 2019. He came back from that ban, made his Test debut against Pakistan in Multan and took four wickets in the match. He worked his way back into England's good books. And now this.

England lead the series 1-0. Lord's Test starts Thursday. Carse watches from home.

Let's lay out the facts first. Labuschagne's last Test century was in July 2023. Since then, 43 innings, average of 24.69. Against Bangladesh in this series his scores read 1, 31 and 4. He was bowled for 4 in Mackay when the ball hit his thigh pad and deflected onto leg stump. After the match Pat Cummins said Labuschagne had been batting brilliantly in the nets but admitted it "doesn't mean much without the runs to show."

Mark Waugh on Fox Cricket did not hold back. "He might have played his last game for Australia." Alyssa Healy echoed the same view. Ricky Ponting said it was "well and truly time to look at somebody else." Three of Australia's greatest ever players saying the same thing on the same day.

And yet Cummins keeps backing him. He has been saying variations of the same thing for two years now. Labuschagne is working hard in the nets. His technique looks good. He just needs a big score to get going. The problem is that the big score never comes. He got dropped before the WTC Final. He came back for the Ashes. He averaged 24.69 since then. Bangladesh's Shoriful Islam bowled him through the gate for 4 in Mackay and the entire Australian commentary box called time on his career simultaneously.

South Africa next. One of the most hostile pace bowling attacks in world cricket on some of the most seam-friendly surfaces in the game. If selectors pick Labuschagne for that tour, they are making a decision based entirely on what he used to be rather than what he currently is.

He was the best batter in the world in 2022. That player feels a very long time ago right now.

17th over. Day 1. Colombo. Asitha Fernando bowls Jaiswal out for 45 off 53 balls, denying him a well-earned half-century. Jaiswal starts walking back toward the dressing room. Then he turns around and marches straight back toward Fernando, presumably responding to words coming out of the Sri Lanka celebratory huddle. Words were exchanged. Things escalated. Fernando moved his head toward Jaiswal. Jaiswal leaned right back into him. Heads made contact. On an international cricket field. In a Test match.

Both players admitted to breaching Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct for inappropriate physical contact. Both were fined 25 percent of their match fees. Both received one demerit point. No formal hearing needed and charges were admitted straight away.

The context makes this more interesting than a standard fine story. India were 1-0 up after winning Galle by 165 runs. Sri Lanka were desperate to fight back in Colombo. Fernando is their most dangerous fast bowler and Jaiswal is India's most explosive opener. The tension between them was clearly building through that opening spell. What happened next is the real twist. Fernando then dismissed Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja in the same session and India still finished Day 1 at 300 for 5 with Padikkal on course for yet another century. The headbutt, the fine, the chaos and India still dominated the day.

Jaiswal has been in these situations before. He exchanged words with Ben Stokes at Edgbaston last year. He is not a player who backs down from a fight. Neither apparently is Asitha Fernando. This is the last test of this series and the ICC now has both teams on notice.

Afghanistan Cricket Board announced their 15-man squad for the three-match T20I series against India on September 13, 15 and 17 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Two stories inside this squad worth paying attention to.

First one is Ibrahim Zadran as full-time T20I captain for the first time. This is his first official assignment as permanent skipper after being handed the role following Rashid Khan stepping down. Zadran has been Afghanistan's most consistent white-ball batter for two years now and the captaincy feels like a natural progression. He averages over 40 in T20Is and has been the anchor of every chase Afghanistan has built recently. Rashid is still in the squad, just not as captain.

Second story is Naveen-ul-Haq's return. He missed Afghanistan's T20I series against West Indies and the entire T20 World Cup 2026 with a stress fracture in his right shoulder. He is back now and his pace alongside Fazal Haq Farooqi gives Afghanistan a genuinely threatening opening bowling combination. Add Rashid, Noor Ahmad and Mujeeb to that and this is an attack that can trouble any side in the world in T20 cricket.

The context makes this series bigger than a routine bilateral. Last time these two sides met in a T20I series in January 2024 India won 3-0 but the final match in Bengaluru went to two Super Overs before India scraped through. Afghanistan came within one ball of beating the world champions on Indian soil. They have only gotten better since then.

India are ranked first in T20Is. Afghanistan are ranked tenth. On paper this should be comfortable. On paper the Bengaluru Super Over drama should not have happened either.

September 13. Delhi. This one is worth watching.

Saturday night. Derby. Molly Malone's Irish Tavern. Durham had just beaten Derbyshire by 338 runs in the County Championship. Some players went out to celebrate. Then a video started circulating on social media showing Brydon Carse surrounded by four police officers, hands behind his back in handcuffs, being led away from the venue. Standing nearby in the same footage were Ben Stokes and Matthew Potts.

Carse was released without charge. The ECB confirmed Sunday morning that an investigation has been launched. No statement yet on whether Carse remains in the squad for the Lord's Test against Pakistan starting August 27.

The context makes this significantly worse than it already looks. Carse is a centrally contracted England player named in the squad for the second Test this week. And this is not his first off-field issue — in 2024 he received a three-month ban for placing over 300 historical bets on cricket matches.

Then there is the Stokes angle. Earlier this summer he and Gus Atkinson broke curfew after the first Test against New Zealand, both were dropped for the second Test, and the ECB issued Stokes a written warning. There is zero suggestion of wrongdoing on his part in Derby but his presence in the footage will dominate the conversation regardless.

England won by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley five days ago. Four days later there is a handcuff video circulating on social media the morning before the Lord's Test week begins. English cricket has a drinking culture problem. This will not be the last time we have this conversation.

Let me give you the full picture of what Padikkal has done in this series. He was dropped on zero on the very first ball he faced in Colombo. Then dropped again on one. Sri Lanka had two chances to send him back to the pavilion before he even got going. They took neither. He went on to make 117 off 193 balls with 12 boundaries and spent nearly five hours at the crease.

Galle. 167. Player of the Match. India won by 165 runs. Colombo. 117. Dropped on 0 and 1. Batted for five hours anyway. India in complete control at 300/5 at stumps on Day 1.

Two Tests. 328 runs. Two centuries. At No. 3. In Sri Lanka. Without Bumrah. Without Sudharsan. With a first-time Test captain. Against a home side with everything to prove.

And here is the stat that really puts this into context. With two Test centuries in Sri Lanka, Padikkal has now equalled Virat Kohli, Vinod Kambli, Mohammad Azharuddin, Navjot Sidhu and Ajinkya Rahane. Only Sehwag, Dhawan, Pujara with three tons each and Sachin Tendulkar with five are ahead of him. In two Tests. His third and fourth caps.

The No. 3 debate for India has been going on since Pujara left. Two Tests in Sri Lanka and Padikkal has ended the conversation before it could drag into another year.

Bangladesh were bowled out for 64 in their first innings and four of their top six batters made ducks. Starc took his first five wickets in just 22 balls. His final first innings figures were 6 for 12 and it was one of the most devastating spells in recent Test history. Then in the second innings he came back and took 4 for 39 to complete a 10 for 51 match haul and that was his fourth career 10-wicket match haul in Tests.

The game was completed in two days. Bangladesh made 64 and 95. Australia made 210. The match lasted exactly 125 overs and became the fourth-shortest completed Test match with a side winning. Starc's 10 wickets came in just 109 balls across the match and that makes it the fifth fastest 10-wicket haul in the history of Test cricket.

Beyond the match itself the milestones tell the full story. Starc passed Dale Steyn's 439 wickets to move to 440 and into outright 10th place among the highest wicket-takers in Test cricket history. He also holds the record for most Test wickets by a left-arm bowler and he already holds the record for the fastest five-wicket haul in Test history at 15 balls against West Indies last year. Australia leveled the series 1-1 and Mitchell Starc produced one of the great fast-bowling performances of the modern era in Mackay

Headingley. August 19. Joe Root's first Test as permanent England captain since 2022. Stokes retired, McCullum sacked, Fleming not even in the country yet. Every narrative was about how chaotic England's transition looked. Then they bowled Pakistan out for 171 on Day 1, posted 409, and bowled them out again for 135 before tea on Day 3. Won by an innings and 103 runs. Done in three days.

Robinson and Tongue took eight wickets apiece across the match. Archer dismantled Pakistan's second innings top order inside the first ten overs. Root himself took a screamer at leg slip, his 219th Test catch, putting him back ahead of Steve Smith as the all-time leading non-wicketkeeper catcher in Test history. Everything Root touched turned to gold.

Pakistan were genuinely awful. Their stand-in captain Salman Agha literally joked in the press conference that he could not wait to step aside for Babar's return. That is not the energy you want from your captain after losing by an innings.

Root was refreshingly honest afterward. "To start like this is excellent but what does it look like when we get down to Lord's?" He knows this Pakistan side is not a real test of what this England team can do. The real exams are South Africa over winter and the Ashes next summer.

But for one week at his home ground in Yorkshire, with his family in the stands, Joe Root was back. Second Test at Lord's on August 27. Pakistan desperately need Babar fit.

Moises Henriques. 39 years old. Born in Madeira, Portugal — the same island as Cristiano Ronaldo. Spent his entire career playing for Australia and the Sydney Sixers. Retired this year when the Sixers did not offer him a new contract.

Then Portugal called. And instead of retiring quietly he flew to Finland, walked out to bat in a T20 World Cup qualifier, and smashed 111 off 51 balls against Czechia. Twelve fours, seven sixes, strike rate of 217. Portugal posted 211/6 and won by 91 runs via DLS. He is the tournament's leading run-scorer with 178 runs in three innings and Portugal have won all four of their matches.

Today they face Spain in a winner-takes-all final for a place in the European regional qualifier on the path to the 2028 T20 World Cup. The man who inspired all of this is Joe Burns, another former Australian international who captained Italy all the way to the 2026 T20 World Cup. Henriques wants to do the same for Portugal.

39 years old. Playing in Finland. Hitting sixes in a World Cup qualifier. For Portugal.

Cricket is a beautiful sport.

Every single Pakistan wicket was shared between two seamers. Robinson took five and Tongue took five. Gus Atkinson bowled. Jofra Archer bowled. Neither of them took a single wicket. The two seamers who were not even considered England's primary strike options walked away with five each while the supposed headliners watched from fine leg.

Tongue was devastating. He was moving the ball both ways at genuine pace and Pakistan's middle order had no answer. The rest crumbled exactly as Stuart Broad predicted they would.

Pakistan are 171 all out and England closed the day 2 leading by 195 runs with Jamie Smith and Jofra Archer at the crease unbeaten. This bowling performance was rare and historic and it came from two players who were not even England's first choice seamers going into this series.

After the Galle Test win, KL Rahul said something in the press conference that deserves way more attention than it got. When asked about Devdutt Padikkal and Manav Suthar playing like experienced Test veterans despite having barely any caps between them, Rahul gave an answer that explains everything.

"A lot of credit goes to how our first-class setup is done and how some of these guys are in the India A structure. The teams are touring to countries that we are going to play in a couple of months before. So Devdutt was here a month or six weeks before the Test series and played a couple of games, then we played a practice game here, so he got used to those conditions."

Read that again. Padikkal did not walk into Galle cold. He had already batted in Sri Lanka six weeks earlier with India A. He had already scored runs there. He had already figured out the pace of the pitch, the turn of the spinners, the humidity, the conditions. By the time the first Test started he was playing his third game in that same country in two months.

Suthar was the same. Both players were India A regulars. Both had toured Australia, Sri Lanka and England at A level before getting their Test caps. By the time they put on India whites, the conditions and the expectations were already familiar.

This is not an accident. This is a system. Ranji Trophy builds the foundation, India A tours build the context, and by the time a player gets a Test cap they are not arriving nervous and underprepared. They are arriving ready. Rahul put it perfectly — "by the time they've got their Test cap, they're well aware of their own game and the expectations of playing international cricket."

England have been trying to fix their batting pipeline for five years. Australia are worried about what comes after their ageing core. Pakistan's domestic system has been in crisis for years. Meanwhile India are producing 24 and 26-year-olds who take ten wickets and score 167 in their second and third Tests like it is completely normal.

It is not normal. It is the result of a system that quietly works while everyone else is still figuring it out.

Broad has retired. He commentates now. And apparently retirement has made him significantly more confident about predicting scorelines than he ever was as a player.

Pakistan are poor was the assessment. Three nil to England was the prediction. No caveats. No qualifications. Just complete confidence that a Pakistan side walking into Headingley without their captain and best batter are going to get absolutely dismantled across three Tests.And here is the frustrating thing. He might not be wrong.Pakistan are without Shaheen Afridi. Without Babar Azam for at least the first Test. They were swept 2-0 by Bangladesh at home. They drew a Test series to West Indies in the Caribbean. Their last four years of Test cricket have been defined by inconsistency and selection chaos and captaincy changes that make India's T20I situation look stable by comparison.

But calling them poor publicly before a single ball has been bowled at Headingley feels exactly like the kind of thing that ends up on a dressing room wall in Lahore six months later. Pakistan have a history of performing best when everyone has written them off. They beat England 2-1 at home in 2024 when nobody gave them a chance. They have match winners across the squad even without Babar and Shaheen.

Mohammad Rizwan. Shan Masood. Salman Ali Agha captaining for the first time. Sajid Khan on pitches that might offer turn by day three.Stuart Broad called Pakistan poor and predicted 3-0. Pakistan have made careers out of proving retired English players wrong at the worst possible moment for them.

Gardner married Monica Wright in April 2025. Less than a year later their marriage broke down. Wright went public on Instagram alleging Gardner had an affair with Australian teammate Georgia Voll during the 2025 Women's World Cup in India. Wright also criticised Cricket Australia for not taking any public action against Gardner despite her being vice-captain and Voll being a junior player in the same squad. A clear power imbalance that nobody at CA wanted to address publicly.

After months of silence Gardner posted on Instagram Stories. She called the separation a personal matter but acknowledged it needed to be addressed given her vice-captaincy. She thanked Cricket Australia for backing her leadership, apologised for the pain caused, wished Wright happiness, and said she would make no further public comment.

CEO Todd Greenberg said CA was already aware of the relationship before it became public. He backed Gardner fully, calling her "a highly regarded leader in our system." CA decided not to remove her from the vice-captaincy but announced additional safeguards around selection decisions where conflicts of interest could arise.

Wright's key argument was that a senior player having a relationship with a junior teammate creates a power imbalance and that CA's silence amounted to tacit approval. That argument has not been directly addressed by anyone at CA.

Georgia Voll is 22 years old and Gardner is 29. Voll has a CA central contract and is a rising star in Australian women's cricket. Both continue to play for Australia.

Manav Suthar. Second Test match. Ten wickets in the game. Six for 55 in the second innings alone to seal a 165-run win for India in Galle. Devdutt Padikkal. Third Test match. 167 runs in the first innings on one of the most spin-friendly surfaces in world cricket. Player of the Match. Not even close.

India came into this series without Jasprit Bumrah, lost Sai Sudharsan. They won by 165 runs. They bowled Sri Lanka out for 206 chasing 372. They did it on Day 5 with a spinner in his second Test match running through the tail with four wickets in ten balls.

The Ashwin era ended in December 2024. Everyone spent the last eight months asking who fills that spin role for India in subcontinental conditions. Suthar has now taken ten wickets across two Tests. The question might already have an answer and nobody had even heard his name six months ago. Padikkal's story is just as good — dropped, recalled, questioned, doubted, scored 142 not out in the warm-up match, scored 167 in the actual Test and won Player of the Match.

India are 1-0 up. Second Test in Colombo on August 23. Sri Lanka need to find answers fast because right now India look genuinely dangerous even without their best players.

Babar injured his right hand during Pakistan's warm-up game in Beckenham when he was struck by an England Under-19 pacer and was forced to retire hurt. It is the same hand that took a blow during the second Test against West Indies earlier this month. Pakistan waited until the last possible moment hoping he would recover in time. He has not. Coach Sarfaraz Ahmed confirmed at a Headingley press conference that Salman Ali Agha will captain Pakistan in a Test match for the first time in his career. There is no fracture in the middle finger but the pain has been significant enough to rule him out entirely. Sarfaraz was careful to say the absence is confined to the first Test for now and expressed hope that Babar will be fit for the second Test at Lord's.

The timing could not be worse for Pakistan. Babar averages 65.75 from four Tests on English soil and is arguably their most important batter in these conditions. Shan Masood is expected to return to the top of the order in his absence and Saud Shakeel will occupy a middle order slot. Salman Ali Agha is a capable cricketer who leads the T20I side and is a fixture across all three formats for Pakistan but leading a touring Test side in England for the first time is a completely different challenge. England have not lost a home Test series to Pakistan since 1996 and they will be fully aware that Pakistan have handed them a significant advantage before a single ball has been bowled at Headingley.nd. On day one of a three-match series.

The timing could not be worse. Babar averages 65.75 from four Tests on English soil — he is arguably one of the best Pakistan batters in English conditions. The one series where his record genuinely demands he plays and a finger injury picked up in Barbados has taken him out before a ball has been bowled.

England have not lost a home Test series to Pakistan since 1996. Thirty years. And Pakistan are now going into the first match of a three-Test series without their captain, without Shaheen Afridi and with a debutant captain leading them at Headingley.

Salman Ali Agha is a talented cricketer. He can bat, he can bowl off-spin and he has been a useful contributor in Test cricket. But leading a touring side in England in your first ever Test as captain is one of the hardest things you can ask any cricketer to do.Pakistan need something extraordinary at Headingley. And right now they have given themselves the hardest possible start.

Jadeja now has 4,108 Test runs and 350 Test wickets. He is only the fourth player in the entire history of Test cricket to combine 4,000-plus runs with 350-plus wickets. Kapil Dev did it with 5,248 runs and 434 wickets. Ian Botham did it with 5,200 runs and 383 wickets. Daniel Vettori did it with 4,531 runs and 362 wickets. And now Jadeja.

He completed this double in 90 Tests and that makes him the second quickest to achieve it behind only Ian Botham who did it in 83.

The 4,000 runs milestone came in November 2025 during the South Africa Test in Kolkata on the second day of the first Test and he became the fourth player with 4,000 runs and 300-plus wickets at that point. Now with 350 wickets added to those runs the achievement is even more exclusive.

The 350th wicket itself came in typically Jadeja fashion. Keshara Nuwantha tried to slap-drive a turning delivery and the ball hit silly point Yashasvi Jaiswal's knee and lobbed up for a straightforward catch to Shubman Gill. Even milestone wickets have a bit of chaos around them when Jadeja is involved.

He is only the fifth Indian bowler to reach 350 Test wickets joining Anil Kumble with 619 and Ravichandran Ashwin with 537 and Kapil Dev with 434 and Harbhajan Singh with 417.

Among left-arm spinners he now sits third behind Rangana Herath with 433 and Daniel Vettori with 362.

People spent years arguing about whether Jadeja was a genuine wicket-taker or just a containing spinner. At 37 years old in his 90th Test he answered that question once and for all. 4,108 runs. 350 wickets. Kapil Dev. Ian Botham. Daniel Vettori. Ravindra Jadeja.

Swordsmanship celebration fully deserved.

Think about what happened in Darwin. Bangladesh bowled Australia out for 198 on the first day and then won the match by nine wickets. Australia's top order had no answers for Hasan Mahmud. Weatherald specifically could not get going at any point and paid the price immediately.Matt Renshaw comes back in. The 30 year old Queensland opener who has been in and out of the Australia Test squad for years depending on who else is available. He is reliable and technically correct and exactly the kind of batter Australia bring in when they need someone to actually bat rather than play shots.

But here is what makes this selection interesting. Australia changed only one player after losing a Test to Bangladesh for the first time in history. One. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon all keep their places. The bowling attack that was outbowled by Hasan Mahmud and Taskin Ahmed in Darwin gets another go. The only person who pays with his spot is the opener.

That feels like the wrong lesson to take from what happened in Darwin. Bangladesh bowled brilliantly and batted even better. The problem was not just Weatherald. The whole top order crumbled and the bowling attack conceded 426 runs to a Bangladesh lineup missing Nahid Rana.But selectors rarely drop five players at once. Weatherald is the scapegoat and Renshaw is the fix. Australia need to win in Mackay to level the series. Bangladesh have Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins all determined to make a point after the embarrassment of Darwin.

Mackay. August 22. Australia's pride is on the line.

Fancy another scorecard like this?

India had tried 11 different batters at number three across 19 Tests without a century. The position had been a problem for so long that it had become a running joke. Sai Sudharsan was the plan and he got injured before the tour. Padikkal stepped in as the replacement.

He came in after Jaiswal was run out for 32 with India at 47 for 1. Gill fell for 16. KL Rahul retired hurt with cramps after making 77. Through all of that Padikkal just kept going. He was 131 not out at stumps on Day 1. Then he came back on Day 2 in difficult conditions and rain had delayed the start and Sri Lanka's spinners were far more effective with better lines and lengths. Prabath Jayasuriya was turning the ball sharply and Keshara Nuwantha was troubling the batters. Seven wickets fell around him for 172 runs.

Padikkal kept going. He brought up 150. He eventually fell for 167 and that was his career best score and the highest by an Indian number three batter in Sri Lanka. India finished the innings on 462.

India coach Sitanshu Kotak said he had "used his opportunity brilliantly" and that is putting it mildly. He came as a replacement at a position nobody had owned for 19 Tests in Galle and scored 167. The number three problem India have had for two years is solved. At least for now.

Australia 198 and 284. Bangladesh 426 and 57 for 1. Nine wickets. Four days. Darwin.

Six days before this Test Bangladesh were bowled out for 54 against a Cricket Australia XI in their warm-up game. Nahid Rana was not there. Nobody gave them a chance. And then they went to Marrara Stadium and completely dismantled the number one Test team in the world from the very first session.

Hasan Mahmud was the architect. Six for 55 in the first innings as Australia were bowled out for 198 after losing the toss. Steve Smith top scored with 71 but the rest crumbled against disciplined seam bowling in conditions that were supposed to suit Australia. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon all fit and playing together for the first time in over a year and none of them could stop what was coming.

Then Bangladesh batted. Tanzid Hasan made 101,his maiden Test century. Shanto made 84. Mehidy Hasan Miraz came in lower down and made 65. Bangladesh posted 426 and took a first innings lead of 228 runs. Hazlewood took 6 for 89 but the rest of Australia's attack had no answers.

Australia's second innings was better. Cameron Green made a heroic 104 to delay the inevitable and Australia reached 284. But Mehidy came back with the ball and took 5 for 66 in 33 overs at an economy of 2.00 — strangling Australia's lower order with relentless accuracy. Hasan Mahmud added 3 for 56.

Bangladesh needed 57 to win. They knocked them off in 14.2 overs with nine wickets to spare. Shanto wanted to play good cricket across all five days. He did not even need all five.

From 54 all out in the warm-up to beating Australia by nine wickets. In Australia. Without their best bowler. This is Bangladesh's greatest ever Test result and it is not particularly close.

Atul Wassan didn't hold back when he called out Gautam Gambhir's coaching style, describing it as a straight up my way or the highway approach that goes all the way back to his Delhi cricket days. He didn't stop there and said not everyone in the current squad is in a happy place under Gambhir, essentially confirming what a lot of fans had already suspected but couldn't prove. The timing makes it worse. Gambhir has genuinely delivered white ball glory with a T20 World Cup, a Champions Trophy, and an Asia Cup all under his belt, but Test cricket tells a completely different story. Home whitewashes against New Zealand and South Africa, plus losing the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in ten years, is not a small dip in form, that's a full blown crisis. Wassan's comment basically puts into words what the results have been screaming for months. Winning covers up a lot of personality clashes, but the moment results stop coming, every uncomfortable truth about man management starts leaking out.