Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India in Australia) Dec-Jan 2011/12

[Paki007]

Even Dravid is struggling here It may go worse if they dont take the responsibility.I think Indian players sometimes try to be over aggressive and give there wickets i think they just look to occupy the crease as they are going from a bad phase Watch Some Misbah's innings

 

[Hooper]

Australia are so much more likeable with Clarke as captain instead of Ponting.

Ashwin is India's second top scorer in the series. Says it all.

Lol, you obviously don't live in Australia.

 

[Aalay]

Need to have this kind of line up really soon:

Sehwag/Rahane
Gambhir
Pujara
Sachin
Badrinath
Rohit
Dhoni
Ashwin
Praveen
Zaheer
Ishant/Umesh

 

[apoorv]

yes,where is Pujara???He got injured for the england series and was never looked upon by the selectors since then.I think he was the perfect guy to fill gangully's spot in the middle order.He played well against the aussies back home in last series.The selectors need to make some sensible decisions now.

 

[swacker]

Lol, you obviously don't live in Australia

Clarke is the better player than Ponting now, and there's nothing wrong with that. No one is the best forever.

 

[Aalay]

yes,where is Pujara???He got injured for the england series and was never looked upon by the selectors since then.I think he was the perfect guy to fill gangully's spot in the middle order.He played well against the aussies back home in last series.The selectors need to make some sensible decisions now.

He got injured in IPL 4. His injury was pretty serious so it took a long time to recover. But I read on cricinfo just before Australia series started that he is fit and ready to go but I guess selectors did not want to risk him. I think he will be available for the next test series.

 

[Paki007]

oh come on ponting has a great career behind him cant compare with clarke

 

[swacker]

I meant Clarke, unfortunately, wins test matches. Although, they are against India so do need to be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

 

[shravi]

Need to have this kind of line up really soon:

Sehwag/Rahane
Gambhir
Pujara
Sachin
Badrinath
Rohit
Dhoni
Ashwin
Praveen
Zaheer
Ishant/Umesh

LOL, so Dravid has two bad tests after a stellar year and you drop him? Ridiculous. Indian fans are so fickle sometimes. I guess Dravid is an easy target...

Rahane
Gambhir
Dravid
Tendulkar
Pujara
Rohit
_______
Ashwin/Ojha
Praveen
Zaheer
Umesh/Ishant

I am willing to give Laxman a few more chances. He was sublime yesterday. Hope we can see more of that.

To me, age is irrelevant if there are no better options. This isn't ODI cricket where you are working towards a goal a few years away like a World Cup. In Tests, you select the best possible XI for each individual series and right now there is nobody better than Dravid and Sachin. If you're good enough, you're young enough.

 

[Highlander999]

Indian fans are so fickle sometimes

Plenty of words come to mind, to describe Indian fans, very few appropriate for a family forum

 

[puddleduck]

Laxman sublime? So scoring a 50 on a surface that 3 Australian's chalked up effortless and chanceless 100s is sublime. I would hope that at least one of the big three in the Indian lineup could have reached a century in a game where Australia racked up 650/4?

Cruising to a 50 when the opposition are attacking and you're already 400 runs behind should not save a career.

 

[Aalay]

LOL, so Dravid has two bad tests after a stellar year and you drop him? Ridiculous. Indian fans are so fickle sometimes. I guess Dravid is an easy target...

Rahane
Gambhir
Dravid
Tendulkar
Pujara
Rohit
_______
Ashwin/Ojha
Praveen
Zaheer
Umesh/Ishant

I am willing to give Laxman a few more chances. He was sublime yesterday. Hope we can see more of that.

To me, age is irrelevant if there are no better options. This isn't ODI cricket where you are working towards a goal a few years away like a World Cup. In Tests, you select the best possible XI for each individual series and right now there is nobody better than Dravid and Sachin. If you're good enough, you're young enough.

I have nothing against Dravid. He is a world class player. I have no problem if Dravid keep playing because he is awesome and you can't throw any of our senior players out like that because they have done so much for India for last decade. But then when will the young players will get chance?

Even though there is no World cup in Test, we still have to look at the future. This is the last series for our senior players in Australia. They are not coming back to play here. So it's better to give some young player chance who are coming to play in Australia again. So they can get some experience on this kind of pitch.

Since, we can't drop any of the senior players. We can give them some rest and bring a young player . Because if someone is not performing than you can not just sit there and watch them getting out in the same fashion. You have a player who is in form and sitting on the bench. So we have to try something new, otherwise another 4-0 is on the way.

 

[SaiSrini]

Not the time to put one of the big three on the firing line. If we started the tour on an equal footing with Australia, its because we have the big three on our side. Without them, we would have once again started as the underdogs. After this series, we can do something about their delay in retirements, but for this series they play all games. Thats the best chance we give ourselves of a fightback. Dravid was in some touch at MCG, Sachin has been in great touch in both games, and Laxman found his touch in the 2nd innings of SCG. So I expect them to fire in unison probably at Perth and/or Adelaide.

Only change I see is, Rohit Sharma in for Kohli. I dont think Dhoni is contemplating Mithun for Ashwin. Ashwin's batting figures should make Dhoni think otherwise. Yes his bowling has not brought the desired wickets, but he hasn't been horrible with the ball either, and has tied down batsmen for good periods of play.

 

[Aalay]

My last post was not about Sachin. Because he has looked the most fluent of all the Indian batsman.

Dravid is struggling during this series. He was awesome in England but he is struggling here. I don't know how people can't see that. His first 20 runs in first innings of MCG was the only time he looked comfortable out there. After that, he ended up with 60 odd runs in that inning but never looked comfortable as he did while making first 20 runs. But still I would give him chance because he was India's best batsman in 2011.

Laxman. Yeh he did alright yesterday but so what? He had 5 runs in 3 innings before that? If you can't drop him, than give him rest for 1 match and try Rohit Sharma. Surely can't do any worse than that.

 

[macintosh]

I think Ishant has been OK. Channel Nine showed his pitch map late in the day, trying to point out that he bowled too many bad balls. But what it actually showed what that he'd been hit for a lot of boundaries off good length balls ie. driving on the up. That says to me that with a bit more luck and seam movement he'll get nicks. But I guess it also says he may not be getting enough of that movement. Either way, I don't think he should be too
embarrassed. I think it was more good batting yesterday than bad bowling.

Its not that he bowled very badly, but he was looking to bowl quicker and was missing the line quite regularly and was not able to trouble the batsmen apart from the 1 good spell he had, his strength was the swing he got with extra bounce and also the control he had which made him successful in his early career, I don't think he should change his natural game to bowl a few yards quicker.