India's historic achievement, Australian pacer slams selectors and more - Cricket News Today, 7th January 2018 

Welcome to Sportskeeda's Cricket News Today. This is a section that covers a summary of the trending news topics of the day in the world of cricket.

January 7 will be a historic day in the history of Indian cricket as the fourth Test match between India and Australia at the SCG ended in a draw and with this result, Virat Kohli's Indian team have registered their first Test series Down Under.

Apart from this, a lot of other things happened in the world of cricket over the last 24 hours. Let's take a look at all the top news from today.

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Nathan Coulter-Nile slams Australian selectors

Nathan Coulter-Nile

Australian pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile has hit out against the Australian selectors for the poor communication after he was not included in the ODI side to face India in the three-match ODI series that gets underway at the SCG on January 12.

The selectors said that NCN is suffering from a back injury and they did not want to take a risk by playing him despite the soreness. However, the pacer played for Perth Scorchers and took 3/25 in the BBL a day after the squad was announced. He said that they did not check his fitness status properly and announced the squad even before he took the tests.

"I didn't take (the news) the best, to be honest. I think it was communicated to me really poorly. I won't go into it, but I don't think soreness is really any excuse for not playing cricket. In fairness, I hadn't had a scan yet. I had had back soreness and back history, but I hadn't had a scan to see what was wrong. I had one when I got home and it was all clear," said Coulter-Nile.

Coulter-Nile is expected to play for Perth Scorchers while the Australian ODI team will take on India in the ODI series.

NOC forces Chris Gayle to miss BPL matches

Chris Gayle

The 2019 Bangladesh Premier League that got underway a couple of days back had its first controversy as West Indian batsman Chris Gayle did not play in his team's first two matches.

It has been revealed that Gayle's NOC was not submitted on time and that is the reason for his absence from Rangpur Riders' first two games.

Gayle arrived in Bangladesh on the day of his team's first match, and it was said that he was rested for the clash against Chittagong Vikings because he couldn't recover from the jet lag. He was also not included in the playing XI for Riders' second game of the season against Khulna Titans yesterday and this move of Riders face a lot of criticisms from the fans.

"We did not receive his NOC before the match and so we could not allow him to take part against Khulna Titans. Maybe they could not submit it on time as it was quite late in Windies. We just received a mail and that suggests we would get it very soon. The franchise have taken everything in the right spirit," BPL technical committee chairman Jalal Yunus told Cricbuzz.

Australian pacer sledges Cameron Bancroft

Cameron Bancroft

Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft has just returned to action after serving his nine-month ban for his involvement in the 2018 Cape Town Test ball-tampering scandal. But, he is taking some time to get back to his best and this has earned him some friendly sledge from his fellow Aussie international

As Bancroft took ten balls to get off the mark for the Perth Scorchers against Brisbane Heat, he was sledged by the out-of-favour fast bowler James Pattinson and this incident was revealed by Chris Lynn.

"(Bancroft) played a couple of balls and Jimmy was into him: 'Mate you had nine months to get that front pad out of the way' and stuff like that. It was good banter. 'Bangers' is a good kid, one of the hardest trainers I've ever seen so he's going to come back really strong, but I still think there's going to be a couple of guys ahead of him (for a national call-up)," Brisbane Heat captain Chris Lynn revealed on Macquarie Radio.

Ravi Shastri fires tracer bullets after India's historic victory in Australia

Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri

Indian coach Ravi Shastri is at it again as he has said something that is debatable in the post-match press conference after the completion of the SCG Test.

Shastri has compared the series win in Australia to the 1983 World Cup win and the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. He said that this series win is as big as, or even bigger than the other two because it came in the truest format of the game, Test cricket.

"I will tell you how satisfying it is for me. World Cup 1983, World Championship of Cricket 1985 this is as big, or even bigger because it is in the truest (Test) format of the game. It's Test cricket, which is meant to be the toughest. Past is history, future is a mystery. We have won today after 71 years and I'd like to live in the present. And salute my captain for being the captain of the team that beat Australia for the first time in Australia in a series," Shastri said.

His statement has created a lot of buzz on social media yet again.

Not India's fault that Smith and Warner were not picked, says Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar has played down the absence of Smith and Warner

While the Indians are celebrating their 2-1 series win in Australia, there are a few people who call this the worst Australian team and the absence of David Warner and Steve Smith didn't help them either.

But, former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the critics by saying that it is not India's fault that both the top Aussie batsmen were not picked to play the Test series.

"It is not India's fault that this Australian team was without David Warner and Steve Smith. Australia could have handed them shorter bans but obviously, it was thought that one-year bans would be good for Australian cricket, that they needed to be made an example for anyone who brings the game into disrepute. India played the opposition they were presented with and it's a great achievement for them," Gavaskar said during a post-match show on 'Sony Six'.