Australia's Tour Of India - 2008

[aditya123]

To be honest, I don't see why Australia shouldn't start favourites in this series.

Sure, we don't have Warne & McGrath anymore but our batting lineup is head and shoulders above the Indian's. Tendulkar & Laxman are the big wickets, Dravid isn't nearly half as good as what he used to be and the rest of the Indian batting lineup isn't much to ride home about.

I wouldn't say that India's bowling lineup is any better then ours either. I'd back McGain to have more success then Harbhajan or Kumble in this series and our pace attack is far superior to India's, even if you include Mitchell Johnson.

Stuart Clark is one to watch out for I feel. Used to hate him and think that he didn't deserve to be the Australian side but truth be told he is an absolute gun. I feel he will prove allot of doubts wrong in this series and prove that he can have success on subcontient wickets with his tidy lengths and superb variation.

I think you missed our opening pair who seem to be a bigger threat at the moment.Sehwag is our best test batsman at the moment.

 

[mattfb]

Interesting squad that Australia have named. Krejza is a decent off spinner who can bat a bit from what I have heard, but I don't see why he should of been selected. He will not get a run while Bryce McGain is there. But as in my report, he may just be this spinner Australia are blooding. I said, "The next topic I wish to cover is Australia's spinner. We need one, who is a front line spinner, not some part timer, like Andrew Symonds or Michael Clarke. Although Clarke has been talking to former leg spin king, Shane Warne, not doing much bowling, just discussing field placements, how to bowl to certain batsmen, where to pitch it, etc.

I think Australia's spinner should be Bryce McGain, even though he is a quick fix. He will be good enough for the tour of India, New Zealand's tour here, and finally the South African tour. However, we may need to blood a spinner, for the 2009 Ashes, because if McGain can't last that long, we will be lost on the spin friendly pitches of England." This is correct, and Australia may just be making the right move in selecting him, so he can hang around the team a bit, and get the feel of things. I can see him sending down a few in the One Dayers as well, where McGain can be rested.

Watson will only be for the One Dayers.

Great to see Bollinger in the side, exactly what we need, so he can play Tests and Johnson can bowl in the ODI's. As I have said many times before, he is a one day player, and he gets the ball to bend back in to the right handers, which is great. It will be interesting to see how much swing any of the Australian bowlers can get from these pitches.

From the squad above, I think we can expect a side looking a little something like this:
1. Matthew Hayden
2. Phil Jaques
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Michael Hussey
5. Michael Clarke
6. Simon Katich/Shane Watson
7. Brad Haddin
8. Brett Lee
9. Stuart Clark
10. Bryce McGain
11. Doug Bollinger

The only position I am unsure about in there is number 6, where we no longer have Andrew Symonds, for this tour at least. I think Simon Katich should be selected over Shane Watson, for 2 main reasons;

1 - Because Katich is better at rebuilding innings after losing a few wickets, where Harbhajan and Kumble will rip through our top order on our pitches.

2 - He offers more spin, which is what you need on Indian, low, spinning pitches. And with Lee, Clark and Bollinger holding up the fast bowling attack, as well as McGain sending down some leggies, another fast bowler is not needed.

One more note, I don't know where McGain bats, so I just slotted him in at number 10. Correct me if he would bat in a different spot.

And yes, that did drag on, and makes no sense at all.

Krejza making the squad is a joke. He left NSW as a promising player, haven't heard anything of him when at Tasmania. McGain and Casson should be the two spinners. I think Casson is injured but if hes fit he would be a better option then Krejza. Casson can bat, trust me. Hes not an allrounder just as yet and probably not as good as Krejza but close. Plus Casson has test match experience where he didn't bowl all that well but I didn't expect much more then what he gave. He will improve greatly in the future by playing more for NSW and gaining experience for Australia. Casson is the player we need to blood.

McGain wont last long but Casson is right behind him, so we aren't blooding Krejza. The selectors love Casson as much as they love Johnson and Watson :. (Dont get me wrong I love casson too I was rolling the eyes at loving Johnson and Watson)

Theres no ODI's as far as I know. If there was your correct, Bollinger would not be in them. He had a cracker of a FC season but a shocker of a OD season. Johnson shouldn't be in the ODI team either if there was ODI's, we would probs go with Noffke or Siddle etc. Well they love Johnson but Noffke deserves a shot. I think he finished in the top 10 batsmen in terms of averages in the 07/08 season and I think in the top 5 bowlers in terms of wickets.

Watson wont bat at 6. Its Katich or David Hussey for mine. Watson isn't good enough imo. Doesn't have the concentration to play a long innings in test level in the Indian heat imo. Katich or David Hussey would be my two options. Both are classy players with fantastic 07/08 domestic seasons. Argueably the two best players in the whole comp. Hussey can play the big innings (hit a hundred in 50 odd balls against NSW at the SCG last season) but can play sensibly. He has huge experience in the domestic competition. Watson played a few good innings, his double century stands out but he was too inconsistent. Katich was averaging over 200 at one stage of the season I think. He got a triple century too. Tough choice for the selectors but imo it should be down to Hussey and Katich.

Great post btw Jake, KUTGW on the forums

EDIT: Well it cant be down to Katich and Hussey because the stupid selectors picked cant bowl cant bat Watson over Hussey. : I'm so pissed off, Hussey is a fantastic batter I rate as one of the best in the county atm!

Feelin Blue? added 7 Minutes and 25 Seconds later...

Sorry,got that wrong.
Katich has never been effective against Tendulkar!

Now your just saying random stats. Katich would bowl a bit, but not much imo. Getting too old for that stuff, he rarely bowled for NSW. Even though Clarke has a dodgy back he would be a better option. He doesn't have much variation but is a good back up spinner to bowl 15-20 overs. Katich might be good in a short stint of maybe 5 overs to try get a quick wicket. But if he did bowl, I would only use him when India are going well and use an attacking field.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

I am doubting Australia will tour India considering what Indian Mujahideen has been doing lately.

I just saw on news the tour may get called off

 

[Gilly Fan]

Terrorist bombings in New Delhi - Tour Under Threat

http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/...fter-delhi-bomb/2008/09/14/1221330620338.html

Interesting, hope it's not cancelled, but there must be a lot of consideration if there are more bombing.

 

[mattfb]

I really hope its not cancelled but safety is more important. The tour cant really be rescheduled either seems we have a busy schedule over the next 18 months.

 

[aussie1st]

A real big shame if this tour gets canceled. Just so much to look out for with this tour and it's out first big test without our retired stars. Player safety is definitely of most importance though so if it's not safe enough then we can't tour.

 

[aditya123]

I can really see the relationship between the teams getting more sour if the tour gets cancelled.And what it would mean that it would quite likely lead to the England tour being called off as well as it follows this immediately.

 

[aussie_ben91]

I definitely think that is an Bias statement. As a neutral side I would consider the england domestic season to be much more competitive then the Aussie one. But thats just me.

LOL

I gotta say this post made me laugh.

If you truly believe this then how come many Australian batsman are prolific at county level (English domestic) but struggle at Australian domestic?

Or how come Darren Pattinson couldn't even make the regular Victorian XI (Australian domestic side) but walked into the English Test Cricket team?

 

[manee]

If you truly believe this then how come many Australian batsman are prolific at county level (English domestic) but struggle at Australian domestic?

Because pitches in English county cricket are easier for batting, on the whole.

Or how come Darren Pattinson couldn't even make the regular Victorian XI (Australian domestic side) but walked into the English Test Cricket team?

Because of a diabolical selection error. You are not honestly suggesting that, in hindsight, Pattinson was one of the best bowlers in England at the time of his selection.

Not disagreeing about the strength of Australian domestic cricket as greater than English - in fact, I don't know enough about the former to make an educated judgement, but those two 'points' are faulty, imo.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Because pitches in English county cricket are easier for batting, on the whole.

You once said that England, South Africa and New Zealand are the most difficult batting conditions in world cricket.

Some of the guys I've played with toured England a few years ago and they reckon English turf is really hard to bat on compared to Australian turf.

Not to mention the overhead conditions.

I don't think it's any concinidence that many batsman dominate in England but struggle in Aussie domestic competition.

 

[mattfb]

I definitely think that is an Bias statement. As a neutral side I would consider the england domestic season to be much more competitive then the Aussie one. But thats just me.

You cannot be serious. Ours is way more competitve simply because we rarely have internationals and blood our youngsters so everyone is at the same level.

Full respect to England domestic cricket though. No doubt you guys blood youngsters too I'm just saying we dont have as many international players in our comp.

 

[manee]

You once said that England, South Africa and New Zealand are the most difficult batting conditions in world cricket.

In international cricket.

 

[McLOVIN]

india all the way!:happy
[at least for now...]

i take it back, i hate BCCB!! this ICL thing stealing our best players!

Aussies All The Way, Trash Them Like How You Trashed Us Pls :happy

 

[Themer]

You cannot be serious. Ours is way more competitve simply because we rarely have internationals and blood our youngsters so everyone is at the same level.

Currently the English Domestic has to be nearly as competitive just look at top tier first class this season nearly everyone could win it and nearly everyone could go down. All the teams are competitive and could beat anyone on their day. Saying its way more competitive is exagerration surely.

 

[aussie_ben91]

What makes Australian domestic competition much stronger then English domestic is the fact that Australian domestic only has 6 domestic hence, the best is playing the best whilst in English domestic, there are 16 teams.

The difference between the best player in Australia and the 66th best player in Australia is closer then the best player in England compared to the 176th best player in England.