Australia tour of India Jan-2020

[Bevab]

Suprised that neither Stoinis nor Maxwell is in the team. Even Mitchell Marsh or somebody like a Travis Head would have been a good edition instead of Turner.

The issue with Australia is that all of their good batsmen, even the aggressive ones are naturally top order players or openers in white ball cricket. The most flexible ones are inevitably shunted down the order like Head and Smith at four, Handscomb at five, Carey at seven. This is even worse in the BBL where Burns for example bats at five for the Heat.

The only exceptions who are actually middle order players that I have seen are Mitch Marsh and Turner himself. On paper, Turner has all of the attributes to thrive. He is one of the quickest between the wickets, can bowl part-time, can slog. Due to fitness and form, none of these are unfortunately being shown by him right now. Like @Jalen mentioned, I would go with Marsh at five or six with Carey as his partner for the moment.

As for seven, the Australian Board overrate Agar's batting for some reason but he is one of the few decent spinners they have at the moment. Him at seven means the Aussies can play three quicks with Zampa and still afford to finish their full quota on most days. The previous era of relying on Stoinis/Maxi/Finch/Smith for ten overs was quite terrible and left the Aussies weakening their actual strength to cover up a weakness.

While Stoinis and Maxwell have been very impressive in the BBL, it is important to remember that it is in a completely different format where both of them play in the top three. Also, with all due respect the BBL has noticeably dropped off in quality over the last couple of seasons. Maxwell was quite poor in the Marsh Cup where even Sutherland actually outshone him despite batting behind him. Stoinis for all of his muscle doesn't really rotate the strike well and is a bit one dimensional in his aggressive strokeplay too.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Some times I wonder why Rohit Sharma doesn't play like this most of the times when he clearly knows to play the role of an aggressor. As far as I have followed Rohit Sharma's career he is someone if he starts to score quickly right from the start he does score big although his double hundreds tells something different but it's been the case with him. If he plays aggressive Cricket right from the start and plays proper Cricketing shots he would always score big.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Positive from this series- KL Rahul

So relieved and satisfied to see him finally perform after a couple of tough years in International Cricket for him.

 

[Bevab]

Glad to see that Iyer could score some runs and remain there at the end to see it through. Some sections of the fanbase and media were already preparing their knives out for him for inconsistency!

 

[SaiSrini]

Is history happening again in Indian cricket? I have a feeling that it is! A certain Rahul Dravid from Karnataka was forced to take up keeping gloves in order to give some balance to the batting order. This was under Saurav Ganguly, India's last aggressive captain who was full of josh. Now it seems like KL Rahul, another Rahul from Karnataka, might soon slot into that role of 'makeshift wicketkeeper' in order to provide balance to the batting order under Virat Kohli, who is 5x the aggressive captain that Ganguly was.

Rohit
Dhawan
Kohli (c)
Iyer
Rahul (wk)
Hardik
Jadeja
Bhuvi/Chahar/Sundar
Kuldeep/Chahal
Shami
Bumrah

This looks like a good balanced side. When Hardik is back, he is the 6th batsman who can bowl a bit. Since an 8th batsman could make a difference in a tight chase, it has to be one of Bhuvi or Deepak Chahar or Washington Sundar, depending on pitch and conditions. Only one of Kuldeep or Chahal to play at a time. This could be a side that can fit both limited overs formats.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Is history happening again in Indian cricket? I have a feeling that it is! A certain Rahul Dravid from Karnataka was forced to take up keeping gloves in order to give some balance to the batting order. This was under Saurav Ganguly, India's last aggressive captain who was full of josh. Now it seems like KL Rahul, another Rahul from Karnataka, might soon slot into that role of 'makeshift wicketkeeper' in order to provide balance to the batting order under Virat Kohli, who is 5x the aggressive captain that Ganguly was.

Rohit
Dhawan
Kohli (c)
Iyer
Rahul (wk)
Hardik
Jadeja
Bhuvi/Chahar/Sundar
Kuldeep/Chahal
Shami
Bumrah

This looks like a good balanced side. When Hardik is back, he is the 6th batsman who can bowl a bit. Since an 8th batsman could make a difference in a tight chase, it has to be one of Bhuvi or Deepak Chahar or Washington Sundar, depending on pitch and conditions. Only one of Kuldeep or Chahal to play at a time. This could be a side that can fit both limited overs formats.

Looks like I have finally convinced one fellow Indian on my 6 bowlers strategy. What I don't agree with is the exclusion of Pant. Indian cricket has reached 60% of his demolition of talent. I am also not in favour of having Rahul keep.

 

[SaiSrini]

Looks like I have finally convinced one fellow Indian on my 6 bowlers strategy. What I don't agree with is the exclusion of Pant. Indian cricket has reached 60% of his demolition of talent. I am also not in favour of having Rahul keep.

I understand he's talented, but it's high time he translates that talent into results. And I think India with their kind of population, cannot afford to give a player much time to find his feet in international cricket. Maybe dropping Pant and making Rahul keep in limited overs, could act as a massive kick in the butt for Pant to go back and find out what he's doing wrong.

Kohli in his recent press conference, has almost explicitly said that Rahul is going to keep in limited overs for sometime now. And he has used the same words that Ganguly used in those days to justify Dravid's promotion as makeshift keeper, "having him keep gives the team balance".

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I understand he's talented, but it's high time he translates that talent into results. And I think India with their kind of population, cannot afford to give a player much time to find his feet in international cricket. Maybe dropping Pant and making Rahul keep in limited overs, could act as a massive kick in the butt for Pant to go back and find out what he's doing wrong.

Kohli in his recent press conference, has almost explicitly said that Rahul is going to keep in limited overs for sometime now. And he has used the same words that Ganguly used in those days to justify Dravid's promotion as makeshift keeper, "having him keep gives the team balance".

He tried to perform in the test matches but got dropped after making a test hundred in Australia & England, a feat the greatest Indian cricketer of all time couldn't manage. Secondly, I don't remember Pant being given a rope of 2-3 series with a settled batting position to prove himself and this privilege has been bestowed upon Rahul as well. It's just that he has performed in one game now.

At the time Ganguly was captain, you would have had to give an arm and a leg to find an international level all rounder in the country. Right now, Pandya, Ashwin and Jadeja are proven performers with the likes of Shankar and Dubey bubbling although I feel Shankar could be damaged property because of being handled the way he has been. Back in Ganguly's time, our perineal issue was the 'fifth' bowler which was generally fulfilled by part time off spinners until Yuvraj happened. The fact that we are talking and should be going with 6 bowlers shows how dynamic limited overs batting has become and how priceless good bowlers are! What it also shows is how clueless and pathetic our captain is that he is still looking for an additional batting option via Rahul and not a bowler. Pant & Rahul are different batters but they are both batters who are match winners through that particular discipline alone. All keepers are good batters these days. Teams don't pick specialist keepers unlike Ganguly's day and age.

Rishabh Pant is among the top 3 most destructive batters in our country, a quality seriously in dearth in our country. By making these idiotic statements like Rahul becoming our keeper choice, or Kuldeep becoming our first spinner in tests etc etc etc is just another feather in the cap of the most poor management in Indian cricket's history.

And while everyone knows I'm a Pant fan, after AB, KL has been my fav batter. So if I am saying Pant is being treated like crap there's no personal like or dislike here. I have never liked Iyer's style or way of shot making or batting but he has been performing at a very high level and a future leader and deserves his chance. Could easily say swap Pant for Iyer which could become a media rage if Iyer fails in one or two games..

Rohit
Rahul
Kohli
Iyer
Pant (WK)
Pandya
Jadeja
Bhuvi
Kuldeep
Shami
Bumrah

This should be our all conditions starting XI

Dhawan (reserve opener), Saini, Chahal, Pandey (bench)

The team is there. It's always been there, it's this magic of Kohli and his mouth piece that keep fuc/<ing us over!

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Rishabh Pant is among the top 3 most destructive batters in our country, a quality seriously in dearth in our country.

Not just for India but infact Pant is amongst top 10 destructive batsman in the world right now and we are just dropping him without proper reasoning is beyond my understanding. As a batsman you are always going to need those 5-10 deliveries at the start of the innings and that is what Pant requires and I am sure that if he does get those he is going to perform well.

Even I would want India to play another all-rounder along with Hardik Pandya or Jadeja but I would not want to play both. I do understand your point but you got to have a balanced side who can bowl out the opposition while not necessarily compromise on the batting. And I think if you need such a player then somebody like Vijay Shankar is the best option that one can get. If Australia can play someone like Stoinis in their line-up why can't India play Shankar considering he is a better option as well. India aren't doing any favours to them by ignoring someone like him.

 

[Bevab]

I am actually pleased for once that we have a selection dilemma based on skill in the ODI batting lineup after a long time of trying to fill up the spots based on who was less worse. This is one situation where I can't quite decide which is the right move either, as there are pros and cons to both of them.

Ultimately however, Rahul has shown himself to be equally capable with the gloves and better with the DRS (small sample size not withstanding) and his presence in the middle order means we get to blood in one of our newer generation of openers who are all much more aggressive in their batting and are some of the brightest prospects ever seen.

 

[asprin]

Glad to see India win the series. In all honestly, I didn't expect them to win the 3rd ODI. So kudos to them.

However, a strange pattern seems to be taking place if the last 3-4 series is anything to go by. India seem to lose the opener and then come back to win the series. We have seen this happen on 3 occasions now in recent times:

1. vs Bangladesh T20Is (lost 1st match, won the series)
2. vs WI ODIs (lost 1st match, won the series)
3. vs Aus ODIs (lost 1st match, won the series)

While this could all be just a co-incidence, it's interesting to see if it continues.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

For all those that have been dissing Pant or don't fully understand what has been going on-

Please watch this.

 

[AOPC]

I stumbled upon this post and thought it may have gone a bit under the radar - https://bitedge.com/blog/do-we-have-to-bowl-it-a-new-low-for-australian-cricket/

The video link in that article shows Tim Paine asking the umpire whether they "have to bowl it" - referring to the last over of the third test match against India. Aus needed five wickets from the over to win.

Ok, I understand taking five wickets in one over is almost impossible, but that's not the point. Tim Paine is representing Australia and shouldn't be giving up under any circumstances - isn't that what make a true champion?

Australia's captain should in no way be asking the umpire to call it day when there's even a tiny chance of the match being won! Previous greats like Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist surely wouldn't have done anything like this.

It was really no surprise to see them go on to lose the Fourth Test if this is the attitude the players are going to have.

Anyone else surprised at how this hasn't been highlighted anywhere else?