India in Australia

[m_vaughan]

All in all, a great series. Well done to both sides for producing the most memorable contest in recent times (since the 2005 Ashes)!

I agree, was a very close contested series apart from the first test. Congratulations to Ponting and his team for coming through victors in the end.

When is the next Aus-SA series? I think the Proteas might just do the unthinkable.

 

[ivanvdm15]

from all of the arguments made in this series i have to say it actually ended up very well , well done to both captains :happy

 

[prarara]

to Australian fans, do you rate a (Test match or series) victory against RSA higher than one against England? How high do you rate a victory against an Asian side like India, or Pakistan, or Sri Lanka?

 

[ivanvdm15]

well at the moment RSA is better than England in both forms of the game. ( well atleast i think so )

so i would rate RSA higher but im not an Aussie fan so i cant say .....

 

[prarara]

Well I'm pretty sure, all other teams rate a win over Australia higher than anything else (as an Indian fan, I rate it higher than one over the current Pakistani team.)

 

[ivanvdm15]

who would rate India a better team than SA or is SA a better team than India ?????

 

[prarara]

I think it's pretty even. SA are good in SA, but not as good in the Subcontinent (they still win matches there, but not as much.)

India's very good at home, like SA, and its overseas record is getting better. Their record is second only to Australia.

So overall I think they are pretty evenly matched at the moment.

 

[sohum]

Trust India to ruin a 5th days play of a Test match. I only watched until the end of it to see Gilly walk off the ground.

Oh please. Your side bats 30 overs more to score 30 runs more than us and it's our fault we didn't make a game out of it? If Australia really wanted a result in the game they would have been far more proactive in their first innings.

Have to say blatantly that today was a completely waste of time, besides watching Gilchrist go off, and really the only reason to watch knowing India had every intention to draw. Would've been nice to see Australia play some strokes and maybe put Gilchrist up the order to have played a few strokes.

But that's the end of that, seen an incredible series, especially from Lee.

It wasn't a waste of time for me. We saw another great knock from Sehwag and potentially one that keeps him in the team and quite radically changes the face of the Indian cricket team.

On to the Twenty20 match, now. RP's injury may mean that Munaf comes in to the squad. I would go with the following XI for the Twenty20 game:

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Gautam Gambhir
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Rohit Sharma
6. MS Dhoni
7. Robin Uthappa
8. Irfan Pathan
9. Piyush Chawla
10. Praveen Kumar
11. Santhkumaran Sreesanth

Tendulkar unbalances the championship-winning line-up, but I think he will probably get a taste of Twenty20 once and for all. We also bat down to number 10 in the above line-up which is pretty awesome. RP's injury is quite concerning though.

 

[.Mob]

Tendulkar out, Gambhir opening, Uthappa at three and Karthik/Raina at 7 would be my team.

Sohum - what are you talking about, Sree can get us useful runs too.

 

[Leggie]

My T20 lineup:

1) Virender Sehwag (Great Knock today! )
2) Sachin Tendulkar/Gautam Gambhir (Can't decide, I just feel Tendya can do more damage that Gambhir but you can't leave Gambhir out with the T20 foom he's in).
3) Robin Uthappa
4) Yuvraj Singh
5) MS Dhoni C+
6) Rohit Sharma
7) Yusuf Pathan/Suresh Raina
8) Irfan Pathan
9) Harbhajan Singh
10) Ishant Sharma
11) Shantakumaran Sreesanth

I just know people will disagree with this team......

 

[0601731]

its better to give tendulkar a break,so it should be gambhir.

 

[Leggie]

its better to give tendulkar a break,so it should be gambhir.

Very true, but you have to admit you would love to see Tendulkar playing all his strokes in a T20....

 

[w3lshrugby]

He'd probably end up failing in T20 though, and then it would be a waste of time playing him - although if it came off it would be marvellous to watch, he is such an amazing batsman. As long as the play Yuvraj and Dhoni (which they will) then I am happy - these two were so influential in the T20 championship win.
Did I ever mention India are my second favourite team?

 

[manee]

Hogg shouldn't see the Test jersey again,

Do players not get to keep them?

Very true, but you have to admit you would love to see Tendulkar playing all his strokes in a T20....

No. Tendulkar cannot play in the T20, he must rest and there is no reason to change a tournament winning batting and fielding unit.

 

[Manohar]

If you remember, it was his string of low scores in the Test matches in the tour of South Africa which cost him his place in the Test side. And I remember a lot of commentators being critical of him at that time. But now, those same commentators are saying that he shouldn't have been dropped! :o Doublespeaking...

To be fair on Sehwag, those pitches were quite juicy and the conditions were quite tough for openers.

Most of the batsmen had problems in the South Africa series inlcuding Dravid and Tendulkar. It does not make sense to drop someone who has a Test Average close to 50 after a bad 3 Test series.

Without Gilly, cricket will not be the same

If Gilchrist's replacement does not bat as well it will really affect the balance of the Australian team. It may affect them more than loosing Warne or McGraw but I hear that Haddin is a good bat.