India's tour of Australia - December/January 2015

[dp458]

Warner, Smith and Rogers is more than two players that you stated we rely on in your previous post and they are all in form. Michael Clarke is another batsman to go with those three that should be included as he is an automatic selection in Australia's team when fit. Mitch Marsh isn't a bowling all-rounder. He made something like a score of 75 runs in the UAE in his second Test match for Australia. He also average 37 with the bat so far in his Test career, so calling him a bowling all-rounder is not justified at all. Mitch Marsh will most likely end up replacing Watson as the sole all-rounder in the Test team once Watson retires.

I agree with you on the fact that Watson, Haddin and Shaun Marsh are not making enough runs with the bat to justify their selection in the team. If it was up to me they would have all been replaced by different players in this series. Shaun Marsh's inclusion in the team isn't because his Dad is a selector though because he is not related to Rod Marsh in any way. If these three players were replaced with the correct players Australia would have a much stronger batting lineup.

You do make some good points IceAgeComing, our batting lineup is not as strong as it could be, but saying we rely on two players in the team to make runs is incorrect.

Rodgers will go to the next Ashes, then Cowan will come in and open, has been much improved this year.
Mitch Marsh will stay at 6 and be the only all-rounder after the ashes as well. and he will be fine in that 6 slot imo.
SMarsh you have to remeber was behind Hughes(RIP) and Kawaja who is injured
Burns is good and much better than Doolan, i agree that he may be the silution at 3.
WK long term i think Whiteman, so next in line is probably Wade as a short term solution

1.Rodgers/Cowan
2.Warner
3.Burns
4.Smith
5.Clarke/Kawaja/Smarsh
6.Watto/MMarsh/Maxwell(Subcontinet)
7.Haddin/Wade/Whiteman

Bowlers, well catered for Lyon and Okeefe as spinners, with Maxwell as a dark horse that i can see him becoming a swashbuckling batter who bowls in the ashley giles defensive mode, to allow the battery of quicks to prosper

Quicks
Hazlewood,Bird,Cummings, Pattinson,Johnson,Harris, Starc,Siddle, i thhink thats its for the mean time.


As an englishmen the next ashes will be a very good contest imo, as both teams, will be transistioning

Eng

Cook
ANOTHER(Robson/Trott/Lyth/Hales/Lees/Ali)
Ballance
Bell/Taylor
Root
Ali/Talyor
Buttler
Woakes
Broad
Anderson
Finn

 

[namin96]

I am not blaming Virat for the fact that he has not captained India in 11 Tests abroad (and lost them all,unlike MSD). He has simply lost one test ,which happens to be his only one in charge. If Kohli leads India for the next 11 Tests and makes the same blunders, I'd criticize him as well. Also, note my earlier point about the team morale being way different in Adelaide than in Brisbane. The Dhoni-Srinivasan angle probably is the reason why MSD is still leading India. Any other cricket nation would have made certain changes post 2 consecutive overseas whitewashes.

Secondly, you are bringing up irrelevant points like Ganguly's captaincy, which isn't even the point of discussion. Never once in my post have I mentioned Ganguly's name. So, lets drop that that, shall we ?

Ok. On Ganguly I never mentioned it based on whether you have mentioned it or not but a lot of people do compare their records and how they fared overseas and stuff. I know that you never mentioned his name. Also, I don't think it is right right now to make Virat Kohli a permenant test captain maybe 2-4 years from now that can happen. He still needs to learn a couple things like controlling some of the things he gets involved in with the opposition like in Adelaide with Warner and others. Other than that I know he would make a very good captain, but right now I think Dhoni is the best test captain we have available, and once again I would just like to say that his overseas record is more like 90% the fault of his bowlers and batsman not helping him out, and more specifically the bowlers have been the issue for us overseas at times. This series has been really good and interesting to watch even though the scoreline reads 0-2. I say this because we have really competed every day of this series thus far and I still hope we do and at least win one match whether its in melbourne or sydney. This has not been a really bad performance so far and I think it has been better than most people expected. If the scoreline reads 1-2 at the end, I will be really happy and I do believe this team is capable of beating the Australians on their pitches but they just have to cross the line when they have their chances. We could have easily batted Australia out of the game in Brisbane if it wasn't for Rohit getting out on the 2nd morning. We still had a chance to win if we put up like 20-30 more runs in the 2nd innings as well as the wicket was doing quite a lot of the 4th day.[DOUBLEPOST=1419256728][/DOUBLEPOST]

Bhuvneshwar Kumar promoted to a Grade A contract by the BCCI for 2014-15. No contracts for Gambhir, Yuvraj.

Good, I don't even think Gambhir really deserved a grade A contract. He sucked and his technique was just shit. Same with Yuvraj whenever these two went outside India they couldn't really do shit.

 

[icyman]

WOW. That is really insulting.

Gambhir has to rank amongst one of our most valuable openers. He was really good when he played within himself and around his weaknesses. Just offlate, he has been unable to fix/control his technical flaws and has deemed himself unfit for National team selection. Nothing like Rohit though

He is still good and better than Rohit. Gambhir has won you more matches across all formats than Rohit combined and thats why I am still gunning for him to make a comeback.
Agreed that he failed in the 'limited' chances given to him in England, but that still makes him better than Rohit (a person who wont budge for the team)

Raina hasn't played an international test in 2 and a half years. He doesn't even have a good First record to boast off. Better to get an actually test player to replace Rohit Sharma

On present form, Raina brings a lot more to the team. Plus he can bowl better than Rohit. The Indian captain ,in the last two Tests have turned to Murali Vijay and we have seen that Vijay has bowled long spells. Better to have Raina. We have nothing to lose. Probably, we can gain by improving the fielding and slip catching at which Rohit really screws up.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Gambhir has won you more matches across all formats than Rohit combined and thats why I am still gunning for him to make a comeback.
Agreed that he failed in the 'limited' chances given to him in England, but that still makes him better than Rohit (a person who wont budge for the team)

An in-form Gambhir would definitely be better than an in-form Rohit (because even when in-form he is out of form). But The biggest problem with Gambhir during his limited chances was the way he got out. He has clearly not fixed/adjusted his flawed offside technique. The prodding and pushing to deliveries outside off was still there, which had led to his downfall. He would be a walking wicket in atleast Test matches

 

[SaiSrini]

Bhuvneshwar Kumar promoted to a Grade A contract by the BCCI for 2014-15. No contracts for Gambhir, Yuvraj.

Kumar deserves it for being India's most reliable bowler, especially in the shorter formats. Waiting for him to be back in time for the tri-series. He needs to hit good rhythm before the WC. He is going to be very crucial for India's bowling attack for the WC.

 

[Epic]

I'd like to see these changes for the Boxing Day Test;

1.) Raina or Rahul in for Rohit, Raina's the obvious choice, but I'm equally open to Rahul getting a go, some might find the thought of an opener replacing a middle order batsman odd, but imo if you can open, you can bat anywhere in the batting order and especially at #6 where we've seen traditional openers used in great effect to protect the lower order/tail from the 2nd new ball.
2.) Rahul in for Dhawan (if unfit).
3.) Bhuvi (if fit) in for Aaron.

 

[Samuels]

Rahul has impressive recent run of form but if he can also keep wickets as suggested by his cricinfo profile it will be a huge bonus for India. Dhoni has not look good at all while keeping wickets. He did not even go for a catch only for Ashwin to spill the catch at a rather unusual 'first slip' position and incidents as such are increasing. All that however depends on whether Indian selectors are willing to look forward and above Dhoni particularly for their test setup.

 

[namin96]

He is still good and better than Rohit. Gambhir has won you more matches across all formats than Rohit combined and thats why I am still gunning for him to make a comeback.
Agreed that he failed in the 'limited' chances given to him in England, but that still makes him better than Rohit (a person who wont budge for the team)



On present form, Raina brings a lot more to the team. Plus he can bowl better than Rohit. The Indian captain ,in the last two Tests have turned to Murali Vijay and we have seen that Vijay has bowled long spells. Better to have Raina. We have nothing to lose. Probably, we can gain by improving the fielding and slip catching at which Rohit really screws up.

Murali Vijay is a way better opener than Gambhir. I know everyone will agree with me on that because he has really improved his batting in the past two years and I think we can see that from the foreign tours. To me it just seemed like Gambhir never really tried to improve his batting, the effort never seemed to be there for him and thats why he sucked. He constantly kept pushing at balls on fifth stump and he still does that. If we told a 5 year old kid not to push at balls on that line and length he would probably do a better job than Gambhir. Also, I still think Gambhir and Rohit are the same because their techniques in general are just good in India and not anywhere else. Yes Raina brings a lot of energy to the team with his fielding and stuff. He never drops catches and the effort is always there. His fielding and batting are way better than Rohit, he needs to be given a chance. With Rohit in the lineup we will never win overseas. I really hope we win a match atleast, we have already exceeded England's performance against Australia last year. I think we have really competed but we just haven't crossed the line and we could have easily been up 2-0 at this point thats how good the two matches were.

 

[Aalay]

Here we go! This is pretty weird to see because they both are very good friends.

Virat Kohli-Shikhar Dhawan 'Clash' Cause for Dressing Room Unrest: Report - Aus vs Ind, 2014-15 News

Now to a little more important news.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar likely to return for Boxing Day Test against Australia - IBNLive

Also hearing that both Kohli and Dhawan are fit for the test.

 

[Fenil]

Kohli is known to be "aggressive" by nature but I guess that is only a heat of moment. He's always been a team man. He must have been frustrated by Dhawan's lack of form as Virat too knows how important Dhawan's wicket is if India has to win a test match down under.

 

[SaiSrini]

Hope they are not trying to rush Kumar back and risk further injuries to him. He is a crucial cog in our WC defence plans. Not having him there would be a massive blow for us. He is our spearhead in ODI's irrespective of conditions. I would let Kumar not play both at Melbourne and Sydney, and if need be draft back Shami or Kulkarni in place of Aaron.

With KL Rahul in the side, maybe the idea of asking Dhawan to float down the order and have Rahul open with Vijay is not a bad idea. I would still like to see Raina play purely because he is another left hander, he is an excellent fielder and a more useful bowler than Vijay or Rohit Sharma. And its time to see if the improvements he has made to his short ball handling is any effective. I still stick my neck out and say that Raina needs to replace Rohit Sharma for the Boxing Day test.

M Vijay
S Dhawan
C Pujara
V Kohli
A Rahane
S Raina
M Dhoni
R Ashwin
U Yadav
M Shami
I Sharma

 

[icyman]

Murali Vijay is a way better opener than Gambhir. I know everyone will agree with me on that because he has really improved his batting in the past two years and I think we can see that from the foreign tours. To me it just seemed like Gambhir never really tried to improve his batting, the effort never seemed to be there for him and thats why he sucked. He constantly kept pushing at balls on fifth stump and he still does that. If we told a 5 year old kid not to push at balls on that line and length he would probably do a better job than Gambhir. Also, I still think Gambhir and Rohit are the same because their techniques in general are just good in India and not anywhere else. Yes Raina brings a lot of energy to the team with his fielding and stuff. He never drops catches and the effort is always there. His fielding and batting are way better than Rohit, he needs to be given a chance. With Rohit in the lineup we will never win overseas. I really hope we win a match atleast, we have already exceeded England's performance against Australia last year. I think we have really competed but we just haven't crossed the line and we could have easily been up 2-0 at this point thats how good the two matches were.

I agree with what you have to say on Vijay. As for Gambhir, do give him as many chances as you have given Rohit- even he will prosper under those conditions. Gambhir still gets my vote on account of the experience that he gets to the side. You also talk about his technique being bad- Can we shift focus to the Napier Test where he batted to save the team from a loss ?

 

[abhi_jacko]

Can we shift focus to the Napier Test where he batted to save the team from a loss ?

No we cannot shift focus to the Napier Test, even though it was a brilliant effort Gambhir of 2009 is a different creature from the Gambhir of 2014. Back then he knew his weaknesses very well and had learnt to work around them. Last 2-3 years he has just not been able to rein his natural instincts resulting in his failure on the big stage. He could get around the issues in limited overs cricket, but our ODI team is already very settled.

 

[Epic]

Here we go! This is pretty weird to see because they both are very good friends.

Virat Kohli-Shikhar Dhawan 'Clash' Cause for Dressing Room Unrest: Report - Aus vs Ind, 2014-15 News

Clashes are to be expected when big egos are at stake, but for our future captain to claim a player was faking an injury...

Now to a little more important news.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar likely to return for Boxing Day Test against Australia - IBNLive

That's good, we've missed him both as a new ball bowler and an equally good lower order batsman.

Also hearing that both Kohli and Dhawan are fit for the test.

What was wrong with Kohli to begin with?

 

[namin96]

Murali Vijay is a way better opener than Gambhir. I know everyone will agree with me on that because he has really improved his batting in the past two years and I think we can see that from the foreign tours. To me it just seemed like Gambhir never really tried to improve his batting, the effort never seemed to be there for him and thats why he sucked. He constantly kept pushing at balls on fifth stump and he still does that. If we told a 5 year old kid not to push at balls on that line and length he would probably do a better job than Gambhir. Also, I still think Gambhir and Rohit are the same because their techniques in general are just good in India and not anywhere else. Yes Raina brings a lot of energy to the team with his fielding and stuff. He never drops catches and the effort is always there. His fielding and batting are way better than Rohit, he needs to be given a chance. With Rohit in the lineup we will never win overseas.

I agree with what you have to say on Vijay. As for Gambhir, do give him as many chances as you have given Rohit- even he will prosper under those conditions. Gambhir still gets my vote on account of the experience that he gets to the side. You also talk about his technique being bad- Can we shift focus to the Napier Test where he batted to save the team from a loss ?

That was a good innings from him but that's only one major performance from him, he has never been consistent and that came against a pretty ordinary New Zealand bowling attack. If he could do something like that against the South African attack or Australian attack I would be impressed. Every player at least has one major performance in their careers even if the career is really short. Lets talk about Yuvraj, he's played some good innings and then his level has dropped off considerably and now he kind of sucks. Gambhir was good when he first came and then he has just sucked even since he came into cricket. Yes I do agree that he has a lot of experience but we never see any improvement in his game or whatever. Kohli has came into cricket later than Gambhir and I think he already has twice as many centuries than him and he is a proven performer abroad as well. He has scored centuries in each country.