Observations from the 2014 Boxing Day Test

The Australian and Indian teams shake hands after the Boxing Day Test

Source: www.smh.com.au

The Boxing Day Test was a tightly fought contest in the first few days and resulted in a draw. There has been some debate about whether Steve Smith missed an opportunity to go for the win by declaring earlier on the fifth day. This would have provided more opportunity for his bowlers, however by declaring when he did he ensured that Australia would win the series. In the end India were set 383 to win off 71 overs and at 2 for 5 spent the rest of Day 5 in survival mode.

What were some of the takeaways from this test:

• Runs galore - the glut of runs scored in the series continued with the Melbourne test providing 1,487 runs over the five days and compares to 1,556 runs in Adelaide and 1,267 runs in Brisbane. The cricket has been entertaining over the three tests and it would appear that this will continue in Sydney.
• Fielding woes - perhaps it has been the result of playing three tests in quick succession but the standard of fielding in the Melbourne test was well below par. On the first day the Indians leaked almost 30 runs in the field through poor fielding and the Australians were uncharacteristically sloppy. 
• MS Dhoni retires - like England's Graeme Swann last year MS Dhoni has retired mid-series effective immediately with the Sydney test remaining. While I wish Dhoni all the best I do find it a little soft to retire mid-series and especially in a series where the quality of cricket played has been very good. MS Dhoni scored 4,876 runs at 38.06 per innings with six hundreds and 33 fifties. As wicketkeeper he took 256 catches and made 38 stumpings during his career.
• Kohli's red-hot form - Virat Kohli scored another hundred for India, this time it was a very classy 169 in India's first innings. In doing so, he became the first Indian player since Sunil Gavaskar in 1977-78 to score three centuries during a series in Australia. Kohli's partnership of 262 with Rahane in just under 58 overs was very entertaining and showed a glimpse of what might be on the horizon for Indian cricket.
• Watson's missed opportunities - In the first innings Shane Watson had the opportunity to make a stand and put all those who have doubted him in their place by scoring a hundred. But Shane played true to form and threw his wicket away after scoring 52 that was scratchy at best. Finally my prayers might be answered as one selector has now hinted that he needs to score runs to retain his spot.
• Did Australia declare too late? - Australia played safe and won the series which will be great for Smith's confidence as captain, but there was a lesson to be learned about decision making for declaring an innings and setting a target that encourages the opposition to chase it and provide enough time to bowl the opposition out. Admittedly, there was some bad weather in Melbourne on Day 5 and play did stop on a couple of occasions, which may have impacted the decision.

So Australia head to Sydney with the Border-Gavaskar trophy already in the cabinet and India begin life without MS Dhoni. Virat Kohli steps in as captain and going by his performance as captain in Adelaide we should expect that India will continue to play aggressive and entertaining cricket.

On a special note - Congratulations to Brendon McCullum who scored 1,164 runs in 2014 to become the first New Zealander to score more than 1,000 runs in a calendar year.