India and Australia cricketers were seen wearing black armbands when they took the field on Friday for the first ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The players had also observed a minute’s silence before the start of the play. The reason behind it was that the players paid homage to Phil Hughes and Dean Jones.
27th November 2020 marks the sixth death anniversary of Hughes who lost his life after getting hit by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield game in 2014. Hughes was not-out on 63 when the ill-fated incident took place. Jones, on the other hand, passed away during the IPL in September this year.
The former Australia batsman was in Mumbai as part of IPL official broadcaster’s commentary panel when he died on September 24 following a cardiac arrest. Dean Jones is survived by wife Jane, and daughters Isabella and Phoebe.
Cricket Australia have planned another tribute to honour Jones’ life. The country’s cricket board has arranged a tribute on the opening day of the second Test at the Melbourne cricket ground, where Jones received tremendous support from his home crowd during his playing days.
Dean Jones played 52 Tests and 164 ODIs for Australia between 1984 and 1994 scoring in excess of 9600 runs combined. It included 18 centuries, with 11 of those in Tests. One of his finest performances came in India when he scored 210 in Madras during the famous tied Test against India in 1986. It was just his third Test.
#TeamIndia are sporting black armbands to pay their tributes to Dean Jones and in memory of Phillip Hughes, who passed away on this day six years ago.#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/0O8wJT5VIq
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 27, 2020
Talking about the game, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. The match is the first played by the men’ side in Australia since the single ODI against New Zealand on 13th March earlier this year. The series was abandoned the next day because of the developing pandemic.
The match is also India’s first since March. Unlike India, Australia returned to action in September with the tour of England where they played three ODIs and three T20Is. After the three ODIs, India and Australia will also play three T20Is and four Tests.