Courtesy: X
On Saturday, December 14, Zaheer Khan and Matthew Hayden walked out to the field at the Gabba in Brisbane with the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in their hands before the start of the third Test match in the series. The play on the first day was interrupted by rain and wet outfield, due to which Australia batted for just 13.2 overs, scoring 28 runs without losing a wicket after India had put them into bat first in overcast conditions.
At the close of play on day one of the third BGT Test, Nathan McSweeney (19* off 47) and Usman Khawaja (4* off 33) stayed unbeaten at the crease, playing out the first spells of the three Indian pacers with relative ease. Indian team management had made a couple of changes, replacing Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana with Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep respectively, while Australia bought back Josh Hazlewood for Scott Boland.
To walk with the trophy on the field and welcome both the teams is a memorable moment: Zaheer Khan
In the clip shared by Star Sports on their official X account from the Gabba Test, Zaheer Khan and Matthew Hayden walked out with the coveted trophy, following which the Indian fast bowler spoke about his relationship with him. He was quoted as saying, as per the Times of India, “To walk with the trophy on the field and welcome both the teams is a memorable moment and I have had many fights with Hayden on the field but this moment when you are away from the game, the atmosphere of friendship, and the memories of competitions against each other, the aggression with which we have played cricket that much love can be seen here.”
Watch the video of Zaheer Khan and Matthew Hayden walked out to the field at Gabba:
Harbhajan Singh, who was in the commentary box alongside Zaheer Khan, brought up the moment from a Test match wherein the Indian fast bowler gave a fiery send-off to Matthew Hayden till reaching the dressing room. In response, Khan cracked a smile, and said, “That series was like that and whenever one plays against Australia, these fierce encounters become memorable and Australia also play their cricket with the same intensity. So you can't back down if you have to compete with Australia at that level.”
