ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day from the third day of the first Test between Australia and India in Melbourne

Sachin Tendulkar batted with fluency and control to help India break the trend of batting failures that had blighted their start to overseas tours in recent times

ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day from the second day of the first Test between Australia and India in Melbourne

Kim Hughes never completed reading the statement he'd prepared for the press during his emotional resignation in 1984. The person who did recalls that most poignant day

It was a day when both teams' weaker suits - Australia's batting and India's bowling - came face to face, and India didn't come out looking out of place

ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day from the first day of the first Test between Australia and India in Melbourne

In recent times captains have been obsessed with trying to contain the run-scoring when a specialist batsman is batting with a tailender

On three of their last four tours, they have lost the first Tests, all rain-affected games. The weather in Melbourne doesn't promise anything different

Brad Haddin has said Australia have mentally recovered from the defeat to New Zealand, and are ready for the Indian challenge

Australia evokes memories both painful and sweet for India's manager on this tour

Press conferences with MS Dhoni are inevitably a cat-and-mouse game, as the India captain rarely gives anything away

Australia could be the last tour for Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman, because this is India's last away Test series for two years. Defeat will leave them bitterly disappointed

He hasn't scored an international hundred for a year, a Test century for close to two. Of the five men who are certainties in India's batting order, it is to Gambhir that the Australia tour matters most

Before he left for the series, VVS Laxman spoke about one of his favourite challenges - playing down under

The game has been inspiring tunes for hundreds of years now. Does cricket possess a quality that lends itself to expression in music?

Unlike he did before the World Cup, Virender Sehwag is not premeditating to bat 50 overs anymore. He is batting with a free mind despite an unremarkable year ... until today

When the whole world was asking Ricky Ponting to retire, the man who had just overtaken him to become the second-highest run-getter in Test cricket was rooting for him to do well against South Africa

Neither has played a significant innings since the World Cup, and India will hope they can find runs before boarding the flight to Australia

India will take heart from seeing both candidates for the only open spot in the Test line-up for the Australia tour, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, in form and scoring not soft but difficult, mature runs