Shubh Aggarwal

The rise of Afghanistan's cricket team is an incredible story of perseverance.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. The cricketing equivalent of this age-old saying would be ‘don’t judge a player just by his numbers’. On the surface, Temba Bavuma’s record doesn’t instil much confidence. After 61 Tests, he only has three Test hundreds, with the third ton coming recently in the 60th Test. The average, at 37.3, isn’t inspiring either for a premier batter.

After a long break, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is set to move into the second round — the day-night Test in Adelaide. Two days before the tournament, both teams have some combination mysteries to solve. For India, it is about the returning players — Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill — and two senior players who were on the bench in Perth — Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.