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.

 

[Westend]

Massive loss to India ripe for the taking in Australia

 

[ioppolo]

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

Jaiswal is young, he's the absolute least of their worries.

 

[swingdog]

Good things that happened today - just realised I am in Perth for a wedding during the First Test!

 

[HugeJohnson]

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

You say that as if we don't have Smith, Starc and Khawaja running out for us.

 

[HugeJohnson]

Is ESPN Cricinfo owned by the BCCI? (I mean obviously it's owned by ESPN, but....)

Was my go-to site for everything for years and years but now it seems to be some kind of fan page for the Indian cricket team. At least it still has the same functionality, but it's getting harder to look past their obvious bias in their commentary and articles.

 

[StillAtLarge]

I'm almost coming around to Head opening and Inglis batting at 5. Just seems to make the most sense

 

[sabso]

Is ESPN Cricinfo owned by the BCCI? (I mean obviously it's owned by ESPN, but....)

Was my go-to site for everything for years and years but now it seems to be some kind of fan page for the Indian cricket team. At least it still has the same functionality, but it's getting harder to look past their obvious bias in their commentary and articles.

The India bias is quite clear. They have a big office in hyderabad (I think), the higher ups in the staff have a big Indian contingent, the stats guy and the quiz guys are Indian. They’ve built in a few pointless things like the ask cricinfo thing and adding t20 franchise stats to the player pages.

Or maybe it’s media bias towards the big boys for the sake of engagement figures. Like I’d open the uk sky sports app midweek and the top 6 items are all about man united. That goes to show the India bias probably won’t subside if India suddenly become shit.

 

[Around the Wicket]

Jaiswal is young, he's the absolute least of their worries.

Jaiswal is a given to score there most runs imo.

 

[dumb]

Is ESPN Cricinfo owned by the BCCI? (I mean obviously it's owned by ESPN, but....)

Was my go-to site for everything for years and years but now it seems to be some kind of fan page for the Indian cricket team. At least it still has the same functionality, but it's getting harder to look past their obvious bias in their commentary and articles.

what's been eye-opening for me is the references to indian non-cricket sports teams in the cricinfo commentary.

 

[Whiskers]

I’ve kept suggesting Head should be the opener. He has never struck me as a great #5 anyway and we need an opener which he does in the short form.

I don’t know why it gets dismissed so I’ve done my own research.
Went back 29 innings.
Head has opened 5 of them and against India averaging over 50. At #5 in the other 24 he has averaged 32. 1 ton against the Windies and 4 ducks.

Why is there a narrative that he is untouchable at #5?
Just bring Inglis in and open with Head.
It isn’t difficult.

 

[HugeJohnson]

Yeah, Head is probably the most like for like Warner replacement. It makes sense to send him back to open. But I think he should also have some say over where he is most comfortable and happy batting.

 

[western royboy]

I’ve kept suggesting Head should be the opener. He has never struck me as a great #5 anyway and we need an opener which he does in the short form.

I don’t know why it gets dismissed so I’ve done my own research.
Went back 29 innings.
Head has opened 5 of them and against India averaging over 50. At #5 in the other 24 he has averaged 32. 1 ton against the Windies and 4 ducks.

Why is there a narrative that he is untouchable at #5?
Just bring Inglis in and open with Head.
It isn’t difficult.

The reason it gets dismissed is because he has what can best be described as a loose technique against new ball bowling and is thus best suited to batting when the ball is older. Warner had the same aggressive traits but a much tighter technique which is why he opened.

 

[sabso]

Yeah, Head is probably the most like for like Warner replacement. It makes sense to send him back to open. But I think he should also have some say over where he is most comfortable and happy batting.

They said the same of Joe root, who bats best at 3 but is comfortable at 4. Thus England have accommodated him by making lower order players open or bat 3 because England don’t have anyone who can do that.

All this means is root comes in at 2 down for bugger all instead of one down.

 

[Nuggetz]

India were happy to grind out wins in previous tours through batting for long periods of time to tire out the aussie attack. The 'new' mindset under Gambhir is to attack which hasn't been successful. Do they revert back to the winning formula in Aus or push this 'new attacking' plan?

 

[PhatBoy]

One thing that struck me watching these two current exciting series (NZ v India, Eng v Pak) is how the pitches have been prepared to give the home team an advantage and get the bowlers in the game (not that it's working for India at the moment).

Australia hardly ever seems to do that these days (Brisbane last year was an anomaly). Our priorities seem to be satisfying commercial TV by having a product that lasts for 5 days.

I'm torn. On the one hand, more cricket is great (though not if it's a road), but I miss the days of batters hopping about as they tried to adjust to fast and bouncy pitches.

We have the best fast bowling attack in the world at the moment (and yes, I know India has Bumrah), why not try it this summer?

BECAUSE THE CURRENT PITCHES DO GIVE AUSTRALIA AN ADVANTAGE!!!

How many summers does it take for people to see this??

Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins will take wickets on flat lifeless but still bouncy - for most visiting teams anyway - tracks. That’s their trademark. They are tall, accurate, and get the ball to swing a bit. They will trouble most batting line ups. Most visiting bowling line ups lack the penetration to do the same.

It is an awesome triumvirate of pace bowlers. Lyon cleans up what they can’t, through accuracy and bounce himself.

When it comes time to bat, Australia’s batsmen aren’t world beaters themselves when it comes to handling anything with the ball moving around but they can thrash it all over the place when it’s hard and bouncy so every summer they pile on the runs.

It cannot possibly have escaped your attention that when a pitch with a little bit of sideways movement coupled with a pink ball was presented, Shamar Joseph single handedly won the West Indies that test last summer.

 

[Borisdog]

Is ESPN Cricinfo owned by the BCCI? (I mean obviously it's owned by ESPN, but....)

Was my go-to site for everything for years and years but now it seems to be some kind of fan page for the Indian cricket team. At least it still has the same functionality, but it's getting harder to look past their obvious bias in their commentary and articles.

One word.

Population.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

I’ve kept suggesting Head should be the opener. He has never struck me as a great #5 anyway and we need an opener which he does in the short form.

I don’t know why it gets dismissed so I’ve done my own research.
Went back 29 innings.
Head has opened 5 of them and against India averaging over 50. At #5 in the other 24 he has averaged 32. 1 ton against the Windies and 4 ducks.

Why is there a narrative that he is untouchable at #5?
Just bring Inglis in and open with Head.
It isn’t difficult.

There is a BIG difference opening in the sub continent (where he has) and here where the ball nips around for the first hour. Best time to bat in the sub continent is straight up before in turns sideways. You are robbing Peter to pay Paul he's easily our best 5.

 

[eth-dog]

Jaiswal is young, he's the absolute least of their worries.

I think that's his point. He's more worried from an Aussie perspective.

 

[Whiskers]

There is a BIG difference opening in the sub continent (where he has) and here where the ball nips around for the first hour. Best time to bat in the sub continent is straight up before in turns sideways. You are robbing Peter to pay Paul he's easily our best 5.

I get all that but you want your best players in the team.
So you need to move a player to accomodate the next best option. I’m confident we can give up Head’s 32 average at 5.
I’m sure he can adapt to open and average similar which would still be better than Harris/Konstas/Bancroft.

 

[southern_crusher]

If only we blooded a new opener last summer against the Windies or Pakistan. Now we are a year down the track and still dunno who to open with against good seam bowling in Bumrah and Siraj