A still from ‘The Test’

Around halfway of the second episode of the latest season of The Test, drama erupts.

English batter Jonny Bairstow ducks a bouncer, the ball goes to the keeper and the batter walks out of the crease. Pretty much a normal thing that happens during a Test match, you’d think. But there’s tense music in the background, almost like you know something is going to happen.

And then it does. Bairstow walks out of the crease thinking the over was done, and wicketkeeper Carey has thrown at the stumps and is claiming a dismissal.

“Sort of within one ball yeah, it happened,” Alex Carey recalls in the docuseries.

The crowd at Lord’s Cricket Ground would go on to chant, “Same old Aussies, always cheating,” even as a disappointed Bairstow exits.

It’s the equivalent of an action-packed interval block in the movies, the kind that leaves you on a high as you make your way through to the bathroom, probably grinning all the way at how good it is.

The current season of The Test, a sports docuseries that follows the Australian men’s cricket team, throws up such excellent moments. Following the Bairstow runout, Alex Carey is made villain in the eyes of the English public, something that affects him mentally, which his teammate Steve Smith reveals in the documentary.

The Test almost resembles a movie made on war, because of the format’s nature to be over five days. Every day, every session has some sort of an event that makes it special, and that, at times, seeps into the next day as well, as a new battle ensues. Like the one revolving around the Aussie bowling and the English openers in Old Trafford that highlights what essentially Bazball is. For the uninitiated, Bazball refers to aggressive, ultra-positive way of playing Test cricket. It makes this format far more exciting that you’d think.

Flashbacks are seldom interesting in films, but in such sports documentaries, it provides context and adds to the drama. Like that of Travis Head, who doesn’t touch a bat for weeks due to his wedding and shows up big time at the World Test Championship against India. Or Nathan Lyon, off tour due to a calf injury – the events of him walking out to bat under such circumstances were dramatic – and watching the rest of the series with his wife in his drawing room back in Australia, while his teammates slog it out in England.

Directed by Sheldon Wynne and Adrian Brown, The Test also cleverly brings in the highs and lows of the game; case in point being how the Aussies, after being in the game in the last Ashes Test at the Oval, veered off course. Such sports documentaries can be made or broken by editing, and the fantastic editing team ensures that The Test is a good watch. It also has some neat quotes (Marnus Labuchange says, “Cricket is a game of small margins. You can feel like you’re on top and it can flip in a second”).

While Season 3 might not have the appeal of the first season of The Test, which focused on the image rebuilding exercise of the team after the ball-tampering scandal, it does have quite a few highs. One wishes that a video crew was sent to the Australian ODI World Cup campaign too, so that cricket fans got a peek into the journey of Pat Cummins’ winning team, which silenced Indian crowds in the final.

Nevertheless, this season of The Test makes for an engaging, thrilling watch, with a few lessons that could appeal to even non-cricket lovers.

The Test Season 3 is currently streaming on Prime Video

Lucknow Super Giants coach Justin Langer with captain K.L. Rahul
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Former Australian cricketer Justin Langer was enticed by the prospect of becoming India’s head coach but K.L. Rahul’s word of caution regarding the “pressure and politics” that come with the job dissuaded him from pursuing the “amazing” opportunity.

Langer, who served as Lucknow Super Giants’ head coach this IPL season, recalled a chat with franchise skipper and a senior member of the Indian team Rahul.

Never say never, but…

“You never say never. And the pressure of doing it in India… I was talking to KL (Rahul) and he said, ‘You know, if you think there’s pressure and politics in an IPL team, multiply that by a thousand… (that’s) coaching India,” said Langer.

“That was a good bit of advice, I guess. It would be an amazing job, (but) I have (put myself out of contention),” he added.

Before taking up the assignment with Super Giants this year, Langer had coached Australia from May 2018 to February 2022, helping the team navigate a difficult period in the aftermath of the infamous ball-tampering scandal.

Under Langer’s guidance, Australia lifted its first-ever T20 World Cup title and also went on to win the Ashes.

“I also know that it’s an all-encompassing role, and having done it for four years with the Australian team, honestly, it’s exhausting. And that’s the Australian job!,” the 53-year-old said.

The BCCI has invited fresh applications for the head coach position, with a deadline set for May 27 as Rahul Dravid is set to exit after the T20 World Cup.

Rain clouds hover around the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, during training ahead of the IPL 2024 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in Bengaluru on May 17, 2024
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

Bengaluru’s weather is so notoriously fickle that its tantrums have acquired cult status. On May 18, the city faithful will be praying that it behaves, for a washout against Chennai Super Kings will send their beloved Royal Challengers Bengaluru out.

There is indeed an inglorious tradition of rain affecting at least one RCB home game in an IPL season. An unrelenting summer has ensured that RCB has dodged the bullet six times in the 2024 edition.

However, Saturday’s forecast is for good amounts of precipitation, and it seems like luck may have finally run out.

Scope for hope

There is, of course, the state-of-the-art SubAir drainage system that can get the ground ready in no time. And if the skies relent for two hours, a five-over match is eminently possible. But would five overs do justice to a clash that will be one of the last times Virat Kohli and M.S. Dhoni face-off?

Another variable is the pitch. This season, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium has been far from the batting paradise it usually is; only twice has the 200-run mark been breached in 12 innings (RCB vs. SRH). But the last time CSK and RCB met in Bengaluru, 444 runs were scored. A repeat is in the hands of the weather gods.

Australia’s David Warner raises his bat after completing his century during their match against Pakistan in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru on Friday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Opener David Warner, who set up a crucial World Cup win for Australia with a whirlwind century, credited the IPL for working as a learning platform where he perfected the art of pacing an ODI innings.

Warner’s 163 off 124 and his 259-run association with fellow centurion Mitchell Marsh helped Australia score a 62-run win over Pakistan, and the result has lifted them to fourth on the table.

“I’ve established early on in my career that 50 overs is a long time. I look to try and get to 35 overs and then from there, try and put my foot down if I’m still in.

“I think that’s where in T20 cricket, I’ve learned a little bit as well to change my gears, especially in IPL. I learned a lot when I was playing for Sunrisers that you’re able to have a lot more time than you think,” Warner said during the post-match media conference on Friday.

A glance at Warner’s knock at the Chinnaswamy Stadium will give one a better idea.

The left-hander brought his initial 50 in 41 balls, the next fifty came in 44 balls and the final 63 runs cascaded in a mere 39 balls.

“Having played Test cricket, you can change your gears quite easily. So, in the first 10, two new balls, you got to respect that. But then if you get away, you can be 50 off the first 10.

“Then from there, you set the platform for yourself and that’s the energy you feed off. If you give yourself time at the back end, you can actually score big,” Warner explained.

The 36-year-old has taken a special liking against the Asian side, scoring four successive ODI hundreds, besides making a triple hundred at Adelaide in 2019.

No magic potion against Pakistan, Warner said he did not have any magic potion against Pakistan.

“I think sometimes you just match up well against certain teams. Sometimes you’re going to put away the good balls. But I think you just keep backing yourself. I don’t really look at any stats.

“It just so happens to be that I’ve scored…four consecutive hundreds, which I didn’t know about until they came up. But for me, it’s about doing my best every time I go out there,” said Warner.

The New South Welshman had a word of praise for his fellow opener Marsh, who made a 108-ball 121.

“I was probably the opposite, David – Goliath. He’s in such a great frame of mind at the moment and we love when Mitich is in that zone. You know, he’s a great man to have around the change room.

“He’s the life of the party, brings out the best in everyone and he’s always a character and that’s what you need in teams and in these back-ups against the wall games. It was awesome for him to come out today… his birthday as well,” said Warner.

The veteran batter also did not forget the contribution of Marcus Stoinis, who dismissed Pakistan openers Imam-ul-Haq and Abdulla Shafique to make an early dent to their chase.

“It’s good to see Stoinis charge in like he did and bowl. He knows India well. He knows these grounds very well. You saw he didn’t really give the offside away much, backed himself with the short, there were short boundaries, but he backed himself in his skills to bowl,” said Warner.

Warner said he thought 350 was a par score on the pitch here without being dismissive about Pakistan’s ability to score freely.

“I honestly thought 350 was probably par, given the fact that we know the history of this ground and a little bit of dew can come and get a little bit easier to bat on.

“The guy said there was no show there, so that’s a positive. But always in these totals, they’re going to get partnerships,” he added.

Warner was dropped on 10 by Usama Mir off Shaheen Shah Afridi, and he made Pakistan pay for that error making a daddy hundred.

“It was more a slow off the wicket. I wish I just went through with the shot. But they’re the ones that sometimes they’re holding up on the wicket, you haven’t been bowled a short ball yet. So yeah, I actually didn’t even see him drop it. I was behind the big bison,” he added.