Border Gavaskar Trophy, India v Australia, 2nd Test 17-21 Feb, 1430hrs at Delhi

[toml]

Going to be interesting to see how quickly all the people that have been up in arms about Head's omission turn on him when he fails and everyone remembers why he averaged 15 in Pakistan and Sri Lanka and that he won't be the saviour. Hope I am wrong but I can't seen him having any significant impact, he's always looked a bit of a lost cause against decent spin and I struggle to see him turning that around against like like of Ashwin and Jadeja.

 

[BACCS]

Cummins was talking up Warner today and referenced Boxing Day, like that has any relevance to the current situation and contradicts why Head was dropped. Are captains still involved with selections? Cummins is too close with his NSW teammates and it’s clouding his judgement.

 

[Belnakor]

Heres a question.

A recurring and perennial excuse/reason for not dropping a player is "they have runs on the board, they have taken x00 wickets", and they've earnt the right to another test/series.

Question is. How long does a player with history get?

In the test team for someone who has played 50+ tests it’s normally two years. Ponting got more because he was a legend and the team was rebuilding.

Warner is right at the end of the tether.

I can’t think of many players who went through a prolonged form slump like Warner has and come back fit and firing as good as new. Particularly batsman. Tubby Taylor maybe. That was 30 years ago.

The selectors seem to think Warner is owed the chance to come out of his slump. My argument would be it’s happened once in 30+ years.

 

[Belnakor]

Cummins was talking up Warner today and referenced Boxing Day, like that has any relevance to the current situation and contradicts why Head was dropped. Are captains still involved with selections? Cummins is too close with his NSW teammates and it’s clouding his judgement.

captains no longer select players. I think Punter or maybe Clarke didn’t like doing it and it never came back.

Thank god because Cummins has NFI

 

[freddy mercury]

Do people not understand that india play on the same pitch? Sick of people on social media complaining about it, india have to play on it too. Be better than them

 

[Pure_Ownage]

He did well on pitches where 700 was below par and you could bat for 5 days and not get a single ball to move at all. Yet back home against very mediocre opposition he returned to form.

I’d be very happy to see Warner and Khawaja in the Ashes in England.

But both are 36 and Khawaja would be very lucky to get another SCG test to prolong his career.

Simple fact is Australia needs 2 new openers but all the talk is Davey and Ussie can keep failing all he likes.

Because the selectors dont rate harris and the other openers in the shield are not banging down the door and showing enough.

Warner should go but the lack of depth at shield level is keeping him there.

 

[freddy mercury]

I dunno that video of him shadow batting in the hotel room was pretty odd. The way he acts and talks I strongly suspect he is on the spectrum. But good luck to him.

I must admit I have thought that too, of course nothing against him, just always thought I was the only one. I have a son who is borderline on the spectrum, very similar in a few ways.

 

[MarcMaverick]

This series has made me not like Pat Cummins. Thanks a lot Candice Warner, selectors and Pat are clearly terrified by you.

You spelled Yokko Ohno/Karen wrong, but I 100% agree.

I disliked Cummins a long time ago.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

captains no longer select players. I think Punter or maybe Clarke didn’t like doing it and it never came back.

Thank god because Cummins has NFI

Better than the coach picking it after some of Langer’s selections. If anything the captain should have more say BUT should be held accountable if they get the team they want and perform poorly

 

[Blue Arrow]

Cummins was talking up Warner today and referenced Boxing Day, like that has any relevance to the current situation and contradicts why Head was dropped. Are captains still involved with selections? Cummins is too close with his NSW teammates and it’s clouding his judgement.

Similar support/fantasy from Warner's buds in the media
"You cant drop him, his back is to the wall & that's when he performs"
Conveniently forgetting that most test series overseas he has been crap & stayed crap for the entire series.

 

[melanChronic]

I think now that Warner is on the tour, he should be given at least one more test to justify his continued selection.

The problem is that it's becoming increasingly clear he missed a big opportunity to retire properly after the home summer. The comments he made prior to this tour about being exhausted were very alarming. They are exactly the kind of thoughts that most cricketers would take as a sign they are done with the touring grind and that the time has come to pull the plug.

For some reason he didn't reflect on those thoughts at all, and instead shared them as a sort of * you to CA prior to the awards night. Coupled with the general downward trend of his form and the loss of most of the explosivity that made him so effective in the right conditions, he HAD to see the writing on the wall in the summer gone.

He could have gone out at his home ground after a victory lap around the country, now he's going to wither away on two brutal tours to places he's always struggled in.

 

[HugeJohnson]

Gotta love the “if you take out his biggest score” brigade, yeah let’s just disregard the monster innings because they’re so bloody easy…

Most batsmen fail more often than they don’t, you can tell who has never played cricket the ones who think that a batsmen avging 40 means they make 40 every innings. If you want to take out the 200s you can take out about the 5 lowest scores too

OK, even excluding just David Warners top score of 200, and his 5 lowest scores of 0,0,0,1,1
Over his last 30 innings he averages a grand total of 27.16.

Is that acceptable to you for an opening batsman?

 

[Greendogg5]

OK, even excluding just David Warners top score of 200, and his 5 lowest scores of 0,0,0,1,1
Over his last 30 innings he averages a grand total of 27.16.

Is that acceptable to you for an opening batsman?

For the Windies or south Africa maybe it is...

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Pretty good is not good enough against the Indians.

I mean, that was an understatement. We were blown away in the first match, but there are 3 more to go. We blow plenty of teams away first up at the Gabba too. This, Warner aside, is a very strong team.

 

[Gough]

Morning all. Let's have at it.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Do people not understand that india play on the same pitch? Sick of people on social media complaining about it, india have to play on it too. Be better than them

Yes Freddy, but if prepare different sections of the pitch to play differently to the rest to suit your players then it’s not really the same pitch for both sides now is it.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Yes Freddy, but if prepare different sections of the pitch to play differently to the rest to suit your players then it’s not really the same pitch for both sides now is it.

Nothing was stopping us picking more right hand bats in the squad and let’s not forget weren’t Axar and Jadeja left handers…they got 80 odd each

 

[the_interloper]

Yes Freddy, but if prepare different sections of the pitch to play differently to the rest to suit your players then it’s not really the same pitch for both sides now is it.

Honestly I don't mind the drama of it all but playing over there you need to overcome shit like this, that's why it's so hard to win there (and so good when we do one day)

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Nothing was stopping us picking more right hand bats in the squad and let’s not forget weren’t Axar and Jadeja left handers…they got 80 odd each

We dropped the ball later on, for sure. Not really how it supposed to work.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Honestly I don't mind the drama of it all but playing over there you need to overcome s**t like this, that's why it's so hard to win there (and so good when we do one day)

Yeah, they’ve taken it too far this tour. They banned media from taking photos of this pitch.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

We dropped the ball later on, for sure. Not really how it supposed to work.

We have ourselves to blame and that’s where I blame Lyon massively. If he bowls leg stump darts this test, drop the bloke next test. Last chance bowl at off stump not leg!

 

[the_interloper]

Yeah, they’ve taken it too far this tour. They banned media from taking photos of this pitch.

Just adds to a bit more argy bargy I reckon, we'll all see the pitch today anyway, won't change what it is (or isn't)

 

[Gavin Excell]

Strike me as the sort of bloke that if you got stuck next to him at a dinner party you'd be considering self harm before the main course was served.

I've long thought he and Marnus are on the spectrum

 

[Gavin Excell]

We can but hope that Davey will get dropped, but I don't see it happening.

Nil chance

 

[Gavin Excell]

Is batting first always the preferred option in India?