India tour of Australia Nov'20-Jan'21

[Bigby Wolf]

Deja Vu.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Shreyas Iyer!! What a throw! Needed something special to get a special batsman out.

 

[Bevab]

Who was the genius that saw six overs of Saini and decided "yep, I'll have one more of that" in the very last over up against a player lik Maxwell?

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

What a pathetic series this has been for India. We better continue playing in India to rack up the stats and say we are the best side in the world. The bowling doesn't even look like they have enough preparation or a back up plan. They just keep bowling in the same areas even after getting hit all around the park. Even in 2016 we bowled better, this is just getting worser!!! We can still excuse saying that India didn't play their best bowlers in 2016 but this time we are going with our full strength bowling and yet we are getting hit like anything. I don't expect these guys to win in Canberra, they would surely lose all 3 matches. Now I understand why @Bevab called New Zealand a better side when we lost to them. New Zealand just adapts in a better way than India. It certainly seems that all of England, New Zealand and Australia are much better and well-oiled sides as compared to India.

 

[asprin]

Yeh, the only time I do not appoint Smith as captain in a Ind-Aus series - he goes ahead and smacks two freaking tons

 

[asprin]

And Maxwell giving Sehwag a befitting reply. He responded to his tweet in a dignified manner and let his bat do the talking. Just perfect!

 

[Bigby Wolf]

This is way too much now 8 overs 120.

Last overs the Australian bowlers were spot on.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

What a six that was from Jadeja!

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

If we had bowled better we definitely would've won. 390 would've been too much even for a side like England. We have one of the best bowling line-up in red ball Cricket but white-ball Cricket we keep struggling somehow. What a shameful performance from our bowlers in this series!!!

 

[Ashutosh.]

We have lost our last five ODIs. But I am really happy with our middle order's performance. This batting lineup is far better than the lineup we had in world cup.

Rohit
Shikhar
Virat
Iyer (better than Rayudu and Shankar)
Rahul (better than 2019 Dhoni in batting)
Pandya (better than 2019 Pandya)
Jadeja (better than Jadhav)

This batting lineup does not depends only on Virat and Rohit.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Well, not been on much since I had taken a week off due to Thanksgiving and ODI's bore the hell out of me. This format has to die sooner or pitches have to get better. Nobody gives a crap anymore when Australia and England both have pitches that are as flat as road. People start giving crap when India or subcontinent pitches are flat.

 

[Bevab]

Should we concentrate more on why our bowling is failing terribly in Australia considering Australia themselves have been poor with their batting order for most part of last 3-4 years? What is going wrong with our bowling?

It is easy to see why our bowling is poor. White ball cricket requires bowlers to constantly adapt and we have a captain whose Plan B is basically non-existent. You can get away with it if you've got a working Plan A which is inevitable with the amount of skill in the lineup but when we need to adapt, our bowling falls apart. This frequently happens on batting paradises where you need good plans besides skill to get batsmen out.

The classic example of a bowler struggling under Kohli is Navdeep Saini. Did not play in the 2018 IPL despite so many calls for him to be introduced, then gets thrown in the next year and impresses being the best out of a pathetic lot. I had him in for the T20 World Cup as the third pacer and the genuine quick option based on his skill-set but you need proper backing and ideas behind that too. Take a look at RCB's 2020 campaign, Saini has been used as a powerplay bowler, death bowler, middle overs bowler, the one to control the economy, the one to take wickets and whatnot. There has been no real plan on how to use him best, it is only in the most obvious of match-ups (a well known weakness to genuine pace) that he was actually used well. Beyond that, his role kept changing every game. No stability at all and that reflects in his second game. It was obvious that he was set for a thrashing with the way he bowled back of length to be dispatched away. What he should have done is tried to pitch it up and look for wickets at least. He was going for runs inevitably, at least this way he gets to have a crack at potential wickets rather than relying solely on a batsman edging his delivery out of a lapse in concentration.

 

[Bevab]

I hope these two fifties shut up every critic that suggested Hardik Pandya could not crack it at six. I've always said it, I believe Hardik Pandya can bat in the top six and when you've got a world class trio at the top, it is perfectly fine to have someone averaging sub-35 at six as long as he can be brutally aggressive at the end. When he returns to his best bowling form, I hope they keep Jadeja in the team too and have six bowling options.

I'm not too sure about our approach in the third ODI. Feels like a massive regression from the first where I thought we looked better than the second despite the closer margin of defeat. We never had a chance in that second ODI once our openers got out and Kohli settled for run-a-ball cricket and take it deep. The Manuka Oval traditionally is a fantastic batting track due to the short boundaries and is a first batting side's dream as it slows down well later into the game. Looks like the slowing down started earlier which is why I think we should have gone harder earlier. Imagine having an extra 30 runs to complement this carnage at the end.

 

[Ashutosh.]

What a partnership!

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Who is ready to see KL Rahul's tremendous IPL form going to waste under Kohli's captaincy? me me me!!

Did not see the match but only positive thing that has come out of this 3 match series is Hardik Pandya. It was good to see him bowl as well but you are pushing an injured played to injury because of your captaincy. What if Pandya had gotten himself injured in the 2nd ODI due to his bowling? Onto T20's, which I feel should be the only limited overs format. T20 and Test matches.