Australia tour of India (Feb '17/Mar '17)

[SaiSrini]

Amazing debut for Kuldeep! Very very happy and delighted for that kid. He was long overdue the opportunity and he got it when no one expected it. Loved his reaction after his first wicket, he kissed Rahane's shoulders as if to say "thanks for believing in me". Handscomb wicket (legbreak turning in) and Maxwell wicket (googly) were bloody brilliant!!! Those wickets were just....dope! Too early to peek into his future. Let's wait

This is not a bad score for Australia. Morning sessions and new ball on this pitch will be very helpful to the seamers and obviously Australia have better seamers than us (Hazlewood and Cummins). India need to bat extremely well if they need to stay in this game. Expecting Rahane to come up with a masterclass, hopefully. This is his 'zone'. Rahane and Pujara hold the big key here.

A pitch tailor-made for the opposition team, its weird that Indian curators keep doing this out of nowhere. Has India ever got a rank turner outside Asia? M just curious.

Why can't the Indian curators just prepare a normal pitch. They don't have to move from one extreme to another.

Nice to see this come from a non-Indian. But I dont think its really the other extreme. Yes it has tinges of green, but seeing the way Kuldeep Yadav has performed, it still has turn in it and should be good for batting Day 2-3 if India get unscathed past the opening session(s).

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Clear daylight between Steven Smith and the rest | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

I wonder if Smith will be able to keep up this form in the long-term. Of the new-gen batsmen, I expect him and Kohli to decline the earliest. Smith because he relies a lot on his reflexes which obviously worsen with time. Amla is a comparison. Kohli because he's based on his wrist/forearms and hard-running. The intensity at which he plays has been proven to be unsustainable and I wonder if he will be able to break the norm. Similar to Ponting, if you want a comparison. I expect both of them to have insane peaks and then decline from around 32.

I was just whiling away a little bit of time going through stats and pictures of Kohli from 2007 and his physical evolution over the past couple of years is frankly ridiculous. He has gone from being a chubby boy to being a lean, mean transformer of a man. That's very rare to see.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Clear daylight between Steven Smith and the rest | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

I wonder if Smith will be able to keep up this form in the long-term. Of the new-gen batsmen, I expect him and Kohli to decline the earliest. Smith because he relies a lot on his reflexes which obviously worsen with time. Amla is a comparison. Kohli because he's based on his wrist/forearms and hard-running. The intensity at which he plays has been proven to be unsustainable and I wonder if he will be able to break the norm. Similar to Ponting, if you want a comparison. I expect both of them to have insane peaks and then decline from around 32.

I was just whiling away a little bit of time going through stats and pictures of Kohli from 2007 and his physical evolution over the past couple of years is frankly ridiculous. He has gone from being a chubby boy to being a lean, mean transformer of a man. That's very rare to see.

I don't know about Smith, although I am quite the annoyance in hotels during the IPL.

I'll tell you something about Kohli- His singe mindedness and obsession with cricket is unreal. I doubt he will be tired till 42 to be honest. On one of my one such annoyance for the hotels, I was poolside at the hotel and while there was strict security around, we could see players train. Kohli was at the gym for about 90 mins I think. Half an hour of that, we had him in direct view doing cardio at eye popping speeds. I don't know what he did for the remaining hour. When he came out 90 mins later with a few more people, while the others retired (to their rooms probably) this freak was doing laps in the pool.

Now, you might think what's the big deal about doing laps in the pool and I would agree if he were swimming but he wasn't. He was RUNNING in the pool. With each stroke his knee coming above the surface of the water. We got tired seeing him do it for 10 minutes, but he went on for another 10 or 15 may be. Never had the pleasure of shaking his hand or having a word, but I've seen him from fairly close and his body looks like it's been chiselled out by Michael Angelo!

EDIT- Chris Gayle can really EAT! Believe me.

 

[CerealKiller]

his body looks like it's been chiselled out by Michael Angelo!

You mean Michelangelo, right? The Italian artist

 

[Satan666]

You mean Michelangelo, right? The Italian artist

Lmao you aint gotta embarass the poor lad

 

[CerealKiller]

Lmao you aint gotta embarass the poor lad

I wasn't embarrassing him, I was just asking if that's who he meant, since I was confused.

 

[Satan666]

I wasn't embarrassing him, I was just asking if that's who he meant, since I was confused.

Ah I see

 

[ParkedTheBus]

I know I am going to get a lot of stick for this but overall this series, I haven't been much impressed with Rahul. Yes he has scored runs but he gives plenty of chances to the fielders/bowlers. He doesn't quite carry the aura that say, Pujara does. Australia haven't capitalised on the chances that they've been given. I feel one series or the other, he will run out of this luck and look bad. There's a difference between being aggressive and being reckless and imo, Rahul falls in the latter category. India can do better than him.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I wasn't embarrassing him, I was just asking if that's who he meant, since I was confused.

Yes. I am embarrassed though. I always thought that Angelo is his surname. [DOUBLEPOST=1490511467][/DOUBLEPOST]Pujara has set up camp at Crease side in Dharamshala.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Rahul should've been dismissed three or four times since lunch, has got lucky every single time. Not much Australia can do against such luck.

 

[zwarrior]

Rahul should've been dismissed three or four times since lunch, has got lucky every single time. Not much Australia can do against such luck.

But he is hanging out there. He is scoring critical runs. Still early stage in his career and he is facing Hazelwood and Cummins in this pitch, which is a big thing, but he will come out good.

Actually. He played very nicely in first 2 matches. Only in this match he is struggling.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

FINALLY! Rahul is dismissed. Walking wicket, it was coming a long time.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

But he is hanging out there. He is scoring critical runs. Still early stage in his career and he is facing Hazlewood and Cummins in this pitch, which is a big thing, but he will come out good.

Actually. He played very nicely in first 2 matches. Only in this match he is struggling.

I was really impressed with him in Pune till he threw it away. Since then however he has been very lucky imho. Not saying he won't become a big player but he needs to fix up soon. Some glaring errors in his game, particularly the full ball outside off stump.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Rahul goes after scoring fifty again! This has become more of a habit for him now especially in this series he would be gutted with himself of missing out on some huge scoring opportunities.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

The pitch has eased up sufficiently enough for Pujara and Rahane to make merry now. India should be looking at 450+ since there is little threat from the pitch and the bowlers will inevitably tire out.