India tour of Australia - 2018/19

[prasoonvidhu]

I think kits time to look beyond Rahul. Prithvi Shaw is fine but we need a good defensive batsman like Pujara for opening. Any guesses?

I think Mayank Agarwal will be called in.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Rahul
Vijay
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Pant
Ashwin
Jadeja
Ishant
Shami
Bumrah

OR

Rahul
Shaw
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Vihari
Pant
Kuldeep
Ishant
Shami
Bumrah

 

[prasoonvidhu]

Nothing of surprise here. How often have we seen India go down after a high? I've lost count. It seems as if an inspirational win is almost certainly followed by a deplorable loss. We have seen it 3 times this year itself (SA, Eng and now Aus). Nothing new, but nothing done to improve it either.

Paine will have the last laugh. That's the problem with big talk. You end up on the wrong end if you can't back it up with results.

India has shown good fight to be honest. The conditions are not simple for a sub-continental team. The main reason we are behind in this test is the bowling on the opening day. It might be because Adelaide Test finished on Monday and the Indian bowlers were out again bowling on Friday.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

I think kits time to look beyond Rahul. Prithvi Shaw is fine but we need a good defensive batsman like Pujara for opening. Any guesses?

Whoever we try just have to make sure give him a longer run for the spot and its baffling with inclusion of Shaw people have forgotten about Mayank Agarwal who has been knocking the door for a few years now by piling on runs consistently in domestic arena. Constant chopping and changing ain't gonna help the team nor the individual - which this team management is perfectly capable of and hence these results of solid batsmen loosing their form and struggling to cement a place in the squad.

 

[asprin]

India has shown good fight to be honest.

It may be true to a certain extent. Bowling, yes. But batting is the area that we have been consistently failing for over 3 tours now. It's disappointing to see that all the opposition needs to do is get Kohli or Pujara and it's done and dusted.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Some epic level sledging by Tim Paine :
"You Cant Like Him As A Bloke": Tim Paine Asks Murali Vijay About Virat Kohli.
https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/tim...i-vijay-you-can-t-like-him-as-a-bloke-1963764

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

It may be true to a certain extent. Bowling, yes. But batting is the area that we have been consistently failing for over 3 tours now. It's disappointing to see that all the opposition needs to do is get Kohli or Pujara and it's done and dusted.

To be honest we didn't bowl well in this Test either. The pitch was actually a good bowling pitch but we conceded a touch too many. 326 is way too much on a pitch where even 270-280 can win you matches. We did bat well in this Test apart from Vijay and Rahul in the first innings. And again when we bowled in the 2nd innings we could've wrapped it up around 210-215 but again we conceded 30-40 extra runs to the tail.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Some epic level sledging by Tim Paine :
"You Cant Like Him As A Bloke": Tim Paine Asks Murali Vijay About Virat Kohli.
https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/tim...i-vijay-you-can-t-like-him-as-a-bloke-1963764

Kohli is doing all this because he wants the Aussies to pick on him. He knows it will elevate him to do even better! If I were Tim Paine, I would totally ignore him. In no way, am I saying that the Aussies are being knobs. In fact, the Indians have started this, more so Kohli. But, there's a reason he is doing all this and Aussies would be best served to as I said ignore him.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

It may be true to a certain extent. Bowling, yes. But batting is the area that we have been consistently failing for over 3 tours now. It's disappointing to see that all the opposition needs to do is get Kohli or Pujara and it's done and dusted.

I don't agree. The main issue is choosing a team to take the field. Rahul's 44 in the first test was gold. Vijay looked very very good today. Rahane is the most positive thing to have come out of this test. It's not all down to the batsmen. We can bowl better to the tail and we can start better with the bat.

Everyone overlooks bigger pictures but a balanced head like Moody or an experienced world class cricketer like Kumble would have won us a lot of tests just by helping Kohli with some of the completely shocking calls that have been made.

 

[cerande]

Wonder why don't they trust Jadeja enough to play in an overseas live rubber. They better not play Ashwin in the next one if he is not fully fit as they did in England.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Now coming to the batting in the 2nd innings, Rahul just doesn't seem to carry luck with himself when he comes to bat. He was unlucky to get out like that but his body language isn't correct. He carries a negative approach with himself and is thinking to much about the way he plays and in the process got out. Pujara was absolutely reckless today, all that improvement he made and all those adjustment seems to be gone away in vain in just a couple of innings. He is back at unnecessary pushing those deliveries outside off-stump. And again a poor shot from Kohli brought an end to his innings. The delivery which he got out players like Sachin Tendulkar or AB de Villiers would've smacked that over the mid-wicket area. The real difference between him and Sachin is that Sachin never allowed a bowler to settle, he would still find ways to score his runs and stay out there as long as possible while Kohli seems pretty limited in his approach and he keeps playing the way he does that is where the bowlers found him wanting in Test Cricket (isn't the case while batting in the first innings) and that is where he got out today. Now coming to Murali Vijay he was one of our positives this innings. I know people would say he scored just 20 but there was certainly a shadow of that Murali Vijay who played in 2014-15, not throwing his bat away and waiting for the ball to come and most importantly leaving balls outside off-stump and the ones bouncing above the stumps and nothing really he could've done about his dismissal which was solely because of rough created on the pitch which Lyon exploited well. It was an unfortunate end to a promising start. Rahane again played well but not able to convert his start. He did play positively but a poor shot to get out with fielder standing at point for that very purpose. Vihari was just brilliant once again (hope the takes the match as deep as possible). Hope that Pant doesn't throw it away early. There is still chance if we don't lose wickets in the morning session (infact until and unless we are within 20 runs to win). But I don't see that happening

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Wonder why don't they trust Jadeja enough to play in an overseas live rubber. They better not play Ashwin in the next one if he is not fully fit as they did in England.

They should both play.

 

[SaiSrini]

Onto the MCG now... Well Prithvi Shaw is ruled out of the series. And looks almost certain now that Hardik Pandya is joining back the side for the next two tests. Some might think Pandya's return can be good but I am not too sure. Anyways, as long as it addresses the balance of the side, I am fine.

Hope they take in Mayank Agarwal as a replacement for Shaw (with Pandya as addition or replacing someone else). The openers on this series so far have been absolutely terrible. They failed even in Adelaide, that was the most Indian of all wickets in Australia. TBH - the road should get really tougher from here for India. If Australia have already read it, they should prepare another dark green wicket for MCG and SCG. Fool the Indians into not playing a spinner and/or mess up their line of thinking and make them do selection blunders. Anyways Kohli-Shastri and their croonies are so adept at it. It's only because of Cheteshwar Pujara that we are sitting here at 1-1

P.s: I am happy to see the way Tim Paine is giving it to Kohli. Tim Paine is not 'TIMid' after all.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Hardik Pandya will be the worst addition to the side. If BK plays, I would positively play Jadeja & Ashwin/Kuldeep.

 

[SaiSrini]

And as I wrote it, BCCI announces Hardik Pandya and Mayank Agarwal's inclusion for the 3rd and 4th tests

http://www.bcci.tv/news/2018/press-...and-mayank-agarwal-added-to-indias-test-squad