The 2024 Festivus holding page: The Boxing Day Tests

Today at 10:25 AM

2minute read

No idea why artificial intelligence saw fit to make our Festivus cricket image so UK-centric, but who are we – a mere human – to question its wisdom. It’s trawled through and exploited far more intellectual property than we ever will.

To very quickly bring you up to speed on the purpose of this annual page: We can’t really be bothered writing anything at this time of year, so we lazily post an article flagging that fact. You, the readership, are then invited to do our work for us in the comments section.

As a seasonal coping mechanism, it’s probably past its peak. Most websites’ commenting volumes have declined a little since social media became such a big thing. Those sites are transient and susceptible to implosion though, so we may as well keep doing this. Not much point having your own website and then inviting people to post on someone else’s.

The Boxing Day Tests

• Australia v India from 11.30pm Christmas Day (UK time)
• South Africa v Pakistan from 8am Boxing Day
• Zimbabwe v Afghanistan from 8am Boxing Day

Obviously Australia v India is the most high profile here. We’re particularly interested to see how batting goes for both teams. Australia’s batters are knocking on a bit, so current frailties seem a bit more significant. After three Test matches, only one of the top six (Travis Head) is averaging more than 25. The selectors have responded by dropping their youngest batter, Nathan McSweeney (25), for an even younger one, Sam Konstas (19).

Not that India are looking miles better. Despite hitting a hundred, Virat Kohli is still only averaging 31.50, while Rohit Sharma has only managed 19 runs in three innings, despite batting away from the new ball.

Over at SuperSport Park, we imagine South Africa’s strapping boys will achieve the somewhat bizarre feat of diminishing the World Test Championship by not really bothering with a tour of New Zealand earlier in the year before easily qualifying for the final.

Zimbabwe v Afghanistan? A rare red ball outing for both sides. So that’s nice.

Happy Festivus! Why not go in extra hard in The Airing of Grievances this year.

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