India's tour of Australia - December/January 2015

[SaiSrini]

Good to hear that Kohli will be captain at Adelaide. Will be interesting to see his XI. Will he have the freedom to pick his XI, now that Dhoni is part of the dressing room (but just not playing)? Hope Kohli has his say on the XI selection. Would be nice if Karn Sharma gets the nod ahead of Ashwin or Jadeja. I would actually not mind India playing 5 bowlers in Adelaide, which is traditionally a batting wicket with spin expected at some point during the game. Karn Sharma and Ashwin could possibly play, along with Aaron, Shami and Ishant. Yes, it leaves us with 5 batsmen only but Ashwin is a pretty solid test bat (he also had lot of success last time in Australia with the bat), and Karn Sharma is no muck with the bat. My XI would be:

M Vijay
S Dhawan
C Pujara
A Rahane
V Kohli
W Saha
R Ashwin
K Sharma
I Sharma
M Shami
V Aaron

 

[SaiSrini]

Australia can provide swing, how else did Anderson wreck havoc that one time? Also, I remember the last time India toured there was some swing with Hilf, Sidds and Pattinson.

Though that has disappeared lately ever since Johnson came back.

All those guys have a lot more pace than Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. Can't compare the likes of Anderson with Kumar in terms of pace. Bhuvi is more Vinay Kumar/Praveen Kumar kinda guy with his style. His bowling would work best in English conditions or similar conditions. He would also work better in the shorter formats in Australian conditions where the batsmen are hurried to score faster. Bhuvi would be a major cog in India's attack during the tri-series and the WC.

 

[SaiSrini]

Something tells me that India will compete well for at least two tests (maybe even win one of them, like how they did at Lord's against England). Adelaide is the best chance for them to try and take the lead. India are no easy pushovers for the entire series. The moment they start dropping their shoulders is when they can be pushed over easily. But that will take time to happen, and thats what India has to try to avoid.

 

[shravi]

coming around to the idea of this series now. excited to see Kohli lead India in the first test. Indian test cricket has gone very stale under Dhoni. It's quite boring to watch India in the field. at first, the 7-2 and 8-1 fields were a brilliant innovation, but when it's your 'go-to plan', then it's a little worrying. it was justifiable when he didn't have any options, but when you have India's largest ever selection of out-and-out fast bowlers, and continue to pick trundlers, it's just a bit much for me.

 

[SaiSrini]

coming around to the idea of this series now. excited to see Kohli lead India in the first test. Indian test cricket has gone very stale under Dhoni. It's quite boring to watch India in the field. at first, the 7-2 and 8-1 fields were a brilliant innovation, but when it's your 'go-to plan', then it's a little worrying. it was justifiable when he didn't have any options, but when you have India's largest ever selection of out-and-out fast bowlers, and continue to pick trundlers, it's just a bit much for me.

And there are people who criticize me for saying that Bhuvi's absence is a good thing for India. What you say is also one of the reasons why Bhuvi's absence can be a boon. India always have a problem with picking "horses for courses". If Sehwag scores really well on flat tracks at home, he would be picked for the next series abroad based on his home performances and he would invariably fail overseas. The argument would be "How can we drop him when he has done well in his recent series". Same thing is happening with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. With his pace and build, I have ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE in him succeeding in tests in Australia. Australia will play him just too easily and will damage his confidence.

We have been wanting to see an Indian attack comprising of out and out fast bowlers, and its going to happen now.

 

[namin96]

Good to hear that Kohli will be captain at Adelaide. Will be interesting to see his XI. Will he have the freedom to pick his XI, now that Dhoni is part of the dressing room (but just not playing)? Hope Kohli has his say on the XI selection. Would be nice if Karn Sharma gets the nod ahead of Ashwin or Jadeja. I would actually not mind India playing 5 bowlers in Adelaide, which is traditionally a batting wicket with spin expected at some point during the game. Karn Sharma and Ashwin could possibly play, along with Aaron, Shami and Ishant. Yes, it leaves us with 5 batsmen only but Ashwin is a pretty solid test bat (he also had lot of success last time in Australia with the bat), and Karn Sharma is no muck with the bat. My XI would be:

M Vijay
S Dhawan
C Pujara
A Rahane
V Kohli
W Saha
R Ashwin
K Sharma
I Sharma
M Shami
V Aaron

I agree with you, but please stop making Kohli a #5 test batsman. He's not a number 5 and I don't think #5 suits him at all. We need our important player at #4. If your idea is to promote rehang to provide stability why not just have him open instead of dhawan because that is a better option than having him coming in Kohli's place.

 

[namin96]

coming around to the idea of this series now. excited to see Kohli lead India in the first test. Indian test cricket has gone very stale under Dhoni. It's quite boring to watch India in the field. at first, the 7-2 and 8-1 fields were a brilliant innovation, but when it's your 'go-to plan', then it's a little worrying. it was justifiable when he didn't have any options, but when you have India's largest ever selection of out-and-out fast bowlers, and continue to pick trundlers, it's just a bit much for me.

India needs to bat first if they win the toss and put atleast 350-400 runs on the board and get some confidence going.

 

[Aalay]

Karn Sharma to make his debut. He is also replacing Ravi Ashwin, very aggressive call but at least, no more Jadeja in test which makes me happy. I really hope Karn does well.

 

[aditya123]

I don't understand the logic that Bhuvi being injured is somehow a good thing. That too based on some weird notion that the ball doesn't swing and seam in Australia, and the bowlers hurry and bounce out batsmen. Fking Nonsense.

Plenty of proof that the ball does seam and swing in Australia and Bhuvi with his guile would have been fking priceless.

Not that I am not looking forward to Aaron ripping through the Aussie line up, but the statement that there is no seam or swing in Aus and Bhuvi would thus be useless, jeez, what the hell are u guys smoking?

Poker, its not that people are questioning Bhuvi`s utility. Its more to do with the fact that our setup does not usually go for all-out pace in our attack, unless forced to do so. For the first time in a while, we might go in with a lineup of Shami/Yadav, Aaron and Ishant. Although, I do fear the prospect of an injury to one of them during the test, with all of them known to be brittle, I must say its exciting to see India try out a lineup like this for once.

Bhuvi and medium pacers in general will always have their place in Indian test cricket. For once, lets try and test our pace strength.

 

[aditya123]

So, its that time of the cricket calendar again. Never so excited to wake up so early and what a surprise with team selection! I`ve never been so excited by a bowling lineup that we`ve fielded. Lets hope we stick to it and walk the talk. My worry is that our pace attack is very very raw and is prone to losing its head against a mad dash by Warner and Co. It won`t be a dull first day.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

I would have swapped Rohit for Binny (is he even in the touring party?) as India could probably do with the extra bowling option. You look at Australia and they have both Watson and Marsh who can chip in with the ball.

 

[PokerAce]

We have been a bit defensive with the line up. I fully back Karn getting a debut. However we could also have done with an extra bowler, but MSD being out probably forced the side to pack with batsmen.

Having said this Karn if gets this right could pick up the wickets that the 5th bowler would have picked. Excited to see Aaron have a go at the Aussies. Bowl a few bouncers right up I say.

 

[PokerAce]

Poker, its not that people are questioning Bhuvi`s utility. Its more to do with the fact that our setup does not usually go for all-out pace in our attack, unless forced to do so. For the first time in a while, we might go in with a lineup of Shami/Yadav, Aaron and Ishant. Although, I do fear the prospect of an injury to one of them during the test, with all of them known to be brittle, I must say its exciting to see India try out a lineup like this for once.

Bhuvi and medium pacers in general will always have their place in Indian test cricket. For once, lets try and test our pace strength.

Well I do think Bhuvi's ability is in question here, or else why would ppl advocate dropping him, that too when there is plenty of evidence to show that the ball does swing and seam in Aus.

Ppl who are saying we want pure pace, are kinda getting carried away by the fact that for once we have 'fast' bowlers. I as an India cricket fan do get the excitement of fielding a 'fast' line up. However when we talk of results there is no way that Bhuvi will not feature in the top 3 seam bowlers of India. I would personally have gone for Yadav Bhuvi, Aaron and Ishant along with the leggie.

With Bhuvi injured its kind of a irrelevant point, but I just don't understand how ppl are dismissing Bhuvi so easily.

 

[PokerAce]

Warner first over was encouraging. Some boundaries yes, but clearly a chance will come soon enough if he keeps swinging as far away from his body as he was.[DOUBLEPOST=1418084208][/DOUBLEPOST]BTW will someone tell him its not a T20 you know :P

 

[SpitfiresKent]

What a start this is from Warner.

And there's are first bouncer...