India's tour of Australia - December/January 2015

[SpitfiresKent]

praveen lost his way he is not even in domestic scens now due to some really bad behaviour and stuff.

It's a shame because he's a really good swing bowler. I think I remember one of you guys telling me that he hit an umpire in a domestic game?

 

[grkrama]

yup he was pretty good, but has got a list of problems going on ranging form bullying youngsters to not gelling well with the team etc, havnt heard about the umpire incident but probably has happened.

Praveen Kumar in the dock for another act of indiscipline - The Times of India

 

[PokerAce]

Bhuvi was the best bowler for us in England because the conditions suited his style of bowling. Praveen Kumar did really well in our previous tour of England in 2011, but where is he now? Certain players only suit certain conditions. Unless Bhuvi has a drastic increase in pace and starts getting much more bounce, I don't see him suiting the conditions in Australia.

Look the point on pitches well taken, but we just cannot, cannot drop Bhuvi. He has just been that good. Not only with the ball but has scored some runs lower down the order too. Just how can dropping Bhuvi be justified.

At the very least we have to let him have a go on those pitches. If he doesnt perform then we can drop him. We cannot start by dropping our best bowler without even giving him a chance to have a go on those pitches.

 

[PokerAce]

Anyway, the squad is to be announced on the 4th, so we will know soon enough

Excited to hear about the side

 

[SaiSrini]

Look the point on pitches well taken, but we just cannot, cannot drop Bhuvi. He has just been that good. Not only with the ball but has scored some runs lower down the order too. Just how can dropping Bhuvi be justified.

At the very least we have to let him have a go on those pitches. If he doesnt perform then we can drop him. We cannot start by dropping our best bowler without even giving him a chance to have a go on those pitches.

I am not advocating for "not taking Bhuvi to Australia". He should definitely go to Australia. But he would be my fifth seamer, with all others (Shami, Ishant, Yadav, Aaron/Ishwar Pandey higher in the pecking order). I know Bhuvi will play purely due to his good work in England, but I am fully expecting him not to succeed here in Australia. Would be glad to be proved wrong.

 

[PokerAce]

I am not advocating for "not taking Bhuvi to Australia". He should definitely go to Australia. But he would be my fifth seamer, with all others (Shami, Ishant, Yadav, Aaron/Ishwar Pandey higher in the pecking order). I know Bhuvi will play purely due to his good work in England, but I am fully expecting him not to succeed here in Australia. Would be glad to be proved wrong.

Well if for nothing else then simply for variation we need to have Bhuvi in the side. We can't have three similar bolwers who will all do the same thing. Ishant and Aaron can hit the deck, let out third seamer be different, who will trouble the batsmen in different ways. If we have three similar bowlers, then that will present its own challenges without even going into the discussion on whether our best bowler should be dropped to begin with.

 

[Yuvi.]

Would love to see some more of this with the Indian Batsmen!

 

[Yuvi.]

That Speed & Steep the ball was travelling at the MCG today...
Looks its getting ready for the Indians...!

 

[namin96]

I am not advocating for "not taking Bhuvi to Australia". He should definitely go to Australia. But he would be my fifth seamer, with all others (Shami, Ishant, Yadav, Aaron/Ishwar Pandey higher in the pecking order). I know Bhuvi will play purely due to his good work in England, but I am fully expecting him not to succeed here in Australia. Would be glad to be proved wrong.

Bhuvi has excellent control over his line and length and we need someone like him along with Ishant, Yadav, Aaron, and Shami because we all know how inconsistent these latter bowlers can get. Also, the reason why Bhuvi has a chance to succeed in Australia is if we look back to the 2011 series where Ben Hilfenhaus (similar bowler) got plenty of Indian wickets. There is no reason why Bhuvi shouldn't succeed, his line and length is consistent. Also, Ishant needs to get his line and length right to succeed we saw that in the 2011 series that his bowling was ridiculous and this will be his third trip to Australia believe it or not! There is no reason why he should continue bowling ridiculously there, he should have plenty of experience and he needs to learn how to use it. His height is his strength, I simply don't understand why he fails to use this strength most of the time, just pitch it on a good length right around 4th to 5th stump and the Australian and South African pitches should do the rest for you.

 

[War]

Hope AUS do play Watson & M Marsh in the same XI. Really exciting prospect, will give AUS a 1990s S Africa look when they had 2 quality all-rounder in the top 6 Kallis & McMillan or Klusener.

 

[namin96]

Given how poorly Aus fared against spin, on a pitch that was not exactly a dust bowl or turning square, Ind must go into the tests with two proper spinners.

Dhawan/Vijay
Rahane
Pujara
Kohli
Raina
MS Dhoni
R Ashwin
Bhuvenshwar Kr.
A Mishra (or whoever tickles the selectors fancy)
Ishant S
V Aaron

Six proper batsmen, 2 bowlers who can hold the bat.

Two proper spinners, Raina could chip in if required.

Still we get 3 seamers, which is all we play anyway.

A bit harsh on Dhawan/Vijay (who ever misses out).

I want Dhoni to play 4 regular seamers and 1 spinner, but I highly doubt he will do that. I say this because you need to beat fire with fire meaning your best chance is to unleash pace at the Australians just like they will. I would have Bhuvi, Ishant, Yadav, Shami or Varun( depending on fitness), and Ashwin. I won't be surprised if Clarke plays 5 seamers cause he knows playing a spinner means leaking runs against India. Also, I would stop giving Dhawan chances and bring in Lokesh Rahul from domestic cricket based on his recent performances, never know what a young confident lad could do for you in Australia.
Playing XI
L Rahul
Vijay
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Dhoni
Ashwin
Bhuvi
Yadav
Ishant
Aaron

I wouldn't mind room for Sehwag or Raina in the line up.[DOUBLEPOST=1415404401][/DOUBLEPOST]The first test is extremely important for India because if they perform badly in the first test itself, I'm afraid it will be a repeat of the 2011 series where they couldn't hang on in the Melbourne Test and then it was downhill from there.

 

[PokerAce]

I want Dhoni to play 4 regular seamers and 1 spinner, but I highly doubt he will do that. I say this because you need to beat fire with fire meaning your best chance is to unleash pace at the Australians just like they will. I would have Bhuvi, Ishant, Yadav, Shami or Varun( depending on fitness), and Ashwin. I won't be surprised if Clarke plays 5 seamers cause he knows playing a spinner means leaking runs against India. Also, I would stop giving Dhawan chances and bring in Lokesh Rahul from domestic cricket based on his recent performances, never know what a young confident lad could do for you in Australia.
Playing XI
L Rahul
Vijay
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Dhoni
Ashwin
Bhuvi
Yadav
Ishant
Aaron

I wouldn't mind room for Sehwag or Raina in the line up.[DOUBLEPOST=1415404401][/DOUBLEPOST]The first test is extremely important for India because if they perform badly in the first test itself, I'm afraid it will be a repeat of the 2011 series where they couldn't hang on in the Melbourne Test and then it was downhill from there.

When you see how poorly Aus played spin, and some may say have regularly played spin poorly two spinners is the way to go.

 

[namin96]

When you see how poorly Aus played spin, and some may say have regularly played spin poorly two spinners is the way to go.

If we had Kumble and Harbhajan then I would undoubtedly have said to play two spinners, but we don't have two match winning spinners in our squad. In the 2008 series, I remember Kumble and Harbhajan bowled so well and got so many wickets and I thought India outplayed Australia even though Australia won 2-1 which was largely due to the stupid umpire decisions in the Sydney test.

 

[namin96]

Waiting for it however I am sure it would be something like
Murali Vijay,Shikhar Dhawan,Gautam Gambhir,Rohit Sharma,Cheteshwar Pujara,Virat Kohli,Ajinkya Rahane,M S Dhoni,W Saha,R Ashwin,R Jadeja,Bhuvaneshwar Kumar,Mohammad Shami,Umesh Yadav,Varun Aaron,Ishant Sharma,Stuart Binny.

Not too sure about Gambhir and Binny.I would select Binny just as an option if things go wrong.Gambhir is not in his old touches,yes,but his performance in Duleep Trophy may attract the eyes of selectors plus he got experience and did perform well in the ODI series in the 2012 tour.

Gambhir's technique has so many flaws, I would go with Sehwag over Gambhir. Sehwag has the ability to take the game away from the opposition. If he scores at a brisk pace and gets 80 runs on the board along with vijay or rahane without a wicket that could fire up the team in many ways. Why can't selectors also have a look at L Rahul who has played so well recently.

 

[namin96]

I would also take KL Rahul to Australia as the backup opener. I have no faith whatsoever in Gambhir or Sehwag being our backup openers. We need to find good backup openers for our test side. Maybe KL Rahul can even become a frontline opener ahead of one of our current guys - Vijay and Dhawan.

Hope they take Yadav this time instead of Pankaj Singh. A bowling attack of Shami, Yadav, Aaron, Ishant and Bhuvi sounds pretty good. Frankly Bhuvi should play less in Australia because here conditions are not expected to suit him as much as it did in England. Ishant should play most games, followed by Shami and one of either Yadav or Aaron.

Remember what Ben Hilfenhaus did to us in the 2011 series. He got plenty of wickets and he is just like Bhuvi, he swings the bowl both ways at a slower pace. I think Bhuvi should play because of his line and length control. Also, I would stop giving chances to Dhawan at this point, and have Rahul and Vijay open with Sehwag being the back opener. Dhoni needs to give the youngster, Rahul, a chance and do it in the first match itself if he is selected by the BCCI. It would be such a confidence boost for him instead of putting him in the 3rd test when the team is down 0-2 and putting pressure on his debut. Dhoni just doesn't like tinkering with the squad but it has to be done considering how badly Dhawan has performed away from home except for New Zealand. This will be the 3rd Australia tour for Ishant, and I seriously hope he gets his line and length right and uses his height. He bowled so bad in the 2011 series that it was just pathetic to even watch him play cricket and India fans couldn't help but say curse words towards him.[DOUBLEPOST=1415408766][/DOUBLEPOST]

yet i feel he may end up as pick of our pacers.

Yes, his line and length control is outstanding unlike Ishant and the other pacers.