cricket

Updated: Jan 03, 2019 06:37 IST

The Indian and Australian cricketers were all wearing black armbands on Day 1 of the fourth Test encounter in Sydney. While the sentiment was same, the reasons were different for both sides.

Australia were wearing theirs in honour of former batsman Bill Watson, who died recently aged 87. He played 41 first-class games, scoring 1958 runs in 66 innings, including six hundreds and five fifties. His highest first-class score was 206 playing for New South Wales against Western Australia in Perth in 1956.

READ: India vs Australia Live Cricket Score 4th Test Day 1 in Sydney

India were wearing black armbands on Thursday as a mark of respect to the passing of Ramakant Achrekar - the childhood coach of Sachin Tendulkar. The Dronacharya awardee, who has blessed the Indian cricket with the likes of Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli, used to train cricketers at Shivaji Park in Dadar.

Best known for being the childhood coach of Tendulkar, who has always acknowledged him as his mentor, Achrekar was also a Padmashri awardee. Besides Tendulkar, he also coached some prominent players in Vinod Kambli, Pravin Amre, Sameer Dighe and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

READ: Why winning the toss in Sydney Test is good news for Virat Kohli & Co

India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first against Australia in the fourth and final test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.

India, which has never won a test series in Australia, made two changes to the team that won by 137 runs in Melbourne’s third test last week. Lokesh Rahul returns for Rohit Sharma, who is absent after the birth of his first child. Rahul will open the batting with Mayank Agarwul with Hanuma Vihari dropping into the middle order.

(With agency inputs)