Melbourne [Australia], December 23 : Big milestones are available for Australian stars Steve Smith and captain Pat Cummins to hunt during the Boxing Day Test against India, the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with the superstars aiming to continue their brilliant run in the much-anticipated match.
With the series level at 1-1, both teams will be playing the highly-anticipated Boxing Day Test from December 26 onwards, with an aim to secure an all-important lead and an edge ahead of the final Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Smith is a 'Boxing Day' beast and numbers prove it. All of his Boxing Day matches have come at the MCG. In 11 such matches, he has scored 1,093 runs at an average of 78.07, with four centuries and five fifties to his name. His best score is 192 against India.
The 192-run knock against India is perhaps his most memorable Boxing Day Test performance. Coming in 305 balls, with 15 fours and two sixes, 'Smudge' took Australia to a huge first innings total of 530 runs after batting for almost two days. The match ended in a draw thanks to a fine effort from Virat Kohli, whose knocks of 169 and 54 kept India alive.
Fresh after a return-to-form century at Brisbane after 25 innings, Smith is 191 runs away from 10,000 Test runs and he will become the fourth-batter after Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Steve Waugh to achieve the milestone. In 112 Tests and 200 innings, Smith has scored 9,809 runs at an average of 56.05, with 33 centuries and 41 fifties to his name and best score of 239.
On the other hand, skipper Cummins is also approaching a massive milestone of his illustrious career, which has reached to massive heights in the 2020s after his elevation to captaincy and two world title wins in 50-over and Test format.
Cummins could become the seventh bowler to take 500 international wickets for Australia if he gets eight more wickets. Currently in 212 matches, he has taken 492 wickets at an average of 24.53, with best figures of 6/23 and a total of 14 five-wicket hauls. 283 of these scalps have come in Tests. 11 more wickets will make him the first-ever cricketer to take 200 wickets in the history of ICC World Test Championship since its launching as a league in 2019.
The Aussie skipper has delivered some of his best performances during Boxing Day Tests, taking 35 wickets in seven Tests so far at an average of 17.00. All of his seven Boxing Day Tests have come at MCG. His best bowling performance is 6/27 against India. He has four five-wicket hauls at the venue in Tests.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal.