Australia v India - pre series discussion

[Hamingja]

in favour of a sacrificial, journeyman type opener getting to shoot his shot with a handful of years ahead of him. comes off, good. doesn't come off, the guy quietly slinks back to shield. happy to wait for a dead rubber but australia tends not to use dead rubbers to blood players.

would rob quiney answer an SOS?

That's Harris. India eat him alive and at least we don't have to hear people calling for him to be picked again.

 

[akkaps]

One thing about this Indian side - you can never underestimate them even with some new names in the squad. We all know what happened last time when their new players played with such freedom.

Kohli loves playing in Australia and I feel like he’s due to make some big scores. Young Jaiswal is a scary prospect too.

Do you think they’d opt for an extra batter to potentially squeeze out one of Ashwin or Jadeja if conditions suited faster bowling?

	Age	Mat		Inns	Wkts	Ave	Econ	SR	5w	10w		Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100s	50s
Harshit Rana	23	9		16	36	24.75	3.90	38.00	1	1		13	410	122*	41.00	85.95	1	1
Nitish Kumar Reddy	21	21		38	55	26.01	3.31	47.00	2	-		35	708	159	21.45	55.57	1	2
Washington Sundar	25	31		52	65	29.92	2.90	61.70	3	1		48	1,398	159	33.28	48.27	2	8
Tanush Kotian	26	32		57	100	25.00	3.28	45.60	3	-		45	1,481	120*	42.31	60.82	2	13
Manav Kotian	22	20		35	85	27.02	2.99	54.00	4	2		31	656	96*	27.33	43.04	-	4

I'd expect us to rotate through the bowlers to give them some rest from the long series.

Ashwin is getting on and needs to retire and start coaching, so we'd bet looking for a replacement there. I thought Axar Patel was the answer but I don't know now that Washington was brought into the side and has done well
The above table are the three all rounders brought into the side. Harshit and Nitish bowl mediums, whilst Washington bowls his offies.

The other two names are choice for the replacements, and would like them to play for India ASAP. They were both selected in the India A side though

 

[Cmarsh]

A 37 yo past prime, out of form Rohit Sharma opening the batting is probably a plus for Australia.

 

[Gethelred]

Okay, this gets pretty interesting from here. India have won their last two series over here - the only series in their history that they've beaten us here - and are fresh off a series defeat by NZ, maybe even a clean sweep. There will be questions asked of Rohit and Kohli, but they're probably safe for the tour here. There's any number of sides who'd kill for someone like Ravi Ashwin at six, or Jadeja at 4-5, Sarfaraz and Pant made big runs in test 1; middle order's pulling its weight at the moment. Rohit got 2, 52, 0, and 8 for his four digs. Jaiswal got 13, 35, 30, and 77; one of the openers is pulling his weight but would be ruing his missed opportunities to go on with it, and that opener is not Rohit. Kohli got 0, 70, 1, and 17: it's just not enough runs.

You cannot be expecting your team to succeed without passing 300-350 most of the time, and in all innings except the second at Bengaluru it's been below 250.

From this, India go one of two ways:

• One: they react like their pride has been stung. They can't win this series, but they can drag a test 5 days and bat for ****ing 4 of them, or try and skittle NZ in 2 days; the kind of thing you saw Australia try and do under Clarke/Lehmann, when we were playing dumb, angry cricket. They come over here with a full intent to win the series and bollocks to the future; there's pride on the line for every aged player they've got, and they need to avenge that home series loss against a Tasman sea side.
• Two: they react maturely to this. There's a number of players waiting on the sidelines who can probably state their time has come. Ashwin has often been left out of an Australian tour, and you have Axar sitting there twiddling his thumbs looking ominous. They tell Kohli to stay home and promote one of the best next gen prospects (I'm unfamiliar with who that'd be) to bat at 3. They stick with Rohit, or tell Jadeja he can captain this touring series and replace Rohit as well with Gill moving from 3 to opening opposite Jaiswal, Rahul coming in and batting at 3/4.

It really doesn't matter what they say, their selection will tell the tale as to how they see this series. They go in with their strongest pace attack and the old stars clinging on, it'll tell a bit on whether they think we're gettable or not.

 

[BStaff17]

A 37 yo past prime, out of form Rohit Sharma opening the batting is probably a plus for Australia.

i am more concerned about Pant and Jaiswal then Kohli and Rohit who are over the hill and struggling.