Mitchell Starc pulls down Nathan Lyon's shorts during an interview

With so much at stake in any India-Australia fixture, neither of the teams can afford to give even an inch to the opposition. Not surprisingly, the players remain under constant pressure to deliver. Consequently, one rarely witnesses any moment where players share any light moment even with their teammates let alone the opposition. Banter, sledging, controversies have always been an integral part of this famous rivalry.

Well, the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy has not been an exception either. While the series has not witnessed any controversy as such so far, sledging and banters have been in full flow. From the Australian pacers trying to get under the Indian players’ skin to Rishabh Pant throwing verbal volleys from behind the stumps, the players have shown how much winning this fixture means to them.

Amidst all this, Mitchell Starc managed to make everyone burst into laughter with his hilarious gesture just before the start of the third day’s play in Perth. The left-arm pacer, who rarely shows the lighter side of his personality on the field, pulled off a hilarious prank on his teammate Nathan Lyon when the latter was in the middle of an interview with the official broadcasters.

Starc ran from behind when Lyon was in the midst of the conversation before pulling the off-spinner’s shorts down. But Lyon quickly pulled it up without any reaction as Starc ran away while the commentary panel enjoyed the prank.

Here the hilarious incident when Mitchell Starc pulled down Nathan Lyon’s pants:

.@mstarc56 dacks the 🐐 and @NathLyon421 handles it like a champ!#FoxCricket #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/wYEPtQqR5R

— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) December 16, 2018

Perth Test finely poised

India, meanwhile, couldn’t post the kind of total they would’ve wanted in response to Australia’s first innings total of 326. Riding on fifties from Marcus Harris, Aaron Finch and Travis Head, the hosts put up a good score. In reply, India were in deep trouble after losing both their openers – Murali Vijay (0) and KL Rahul (2) – cheaply.

However, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli steadied the ship before the former departed for 24. Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane then shared an unbeaten stand of 90 runs to help India close day on 172 for 3. They were eventually bowled out 43 runs short of the Australian total.

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~ Written by Bijoy

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