Six players of Team India, including Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, figure in The Guardian newspaper's World Test XI of the Year which interestingly does not include a single Australian.

Beleaguered captain Ricky Ponting on Wednesday defended Australia's recent defeats, saying it was going through a transition phase with youngsters coming in just when seniors were running out of form but claimed he was enjoying the challenge.

Play to start half an hour early tomorrow. Join us for all the action tomorrow at 0900 IST. Till then from all of us here in the comm box, Adios.

Indian paceman Ishant Sharma might have acquired the reputation of bumping off top batsmen like Ricky Ponting but he thanks his stars for not having Sachin Tendulkar as an opponent.

An initially amusing but ultimately irritating feature of Monty Panesar's bowling is the frenzied appeal after he beats a batsman and hits him on the pads outside off-stump.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday described the enthralling six-wicket win over England in the first Test as the toughest of his four-match old tenure as captain.

Indian cricketers are giving police personnel and hotel security a hard time with their "cavalier attitude" that includes sudden disappearances from hotels and objecting to their visitors being frisked, police officials said.

The decision to return to India for the Test series was unanimous and not taken only by senior players of the squad, England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff said.

With a string of impressive on-field performances, including victory in the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup, India have risen to become one of the world's leading limited-overs sides.

Brett Lee took five wickets as Australia beat New Zealand by an innings and 62-runs on the fourth day of the second and final cricket Test and bagged the series 2-0 here Monday.