India's tour of Australia - December/January 2015

[namin96]

Wow after all the discussion yesterday on how poor our bowling is, I thought there is no way India are batting before lunch, so I may as well sleep and tune in post lunch around 7:30 in the morning. Turns out I overslept and the plan still worked. What were the bowlers doing this morning. I checked the scorecard, Harris 74 !! Haddin 55 !!

I would guess they all believed they had overnight transformed into a mix of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar and can bounce out anyone. So probably there was a lot of short pitched bowling on display, probably none of the deliveries going above the shoulder height and probably the balls being thrown around on both sides of the wicket, making field setting impossible.

As for the India reply, India live and die by the first 5 batsmen, one of whom got another 28 and went back. Its irritating the kinda run Dhwan is having. Scores just enough to not be dropped every innings. On the bright side another 50 run parternship is a great thing. We went almost a whole year without one of those.

Vijay has become one of the most consistant openers India have had in 5 years or so, and is a gigantic plus. If we find another then we will be halfway there to becoming a good side overseas again. Adding Bhuvi to the bowling line up would be another great plus. I do see the pluses start to come in now. Although our fast bowling remains one gigantic let down. How to win a test match with this bowling is a task no one should have to think of.

I absolutely would bet a lot of money that even though ishant is in Australia for a third time, Bhuvi would have taken more wickets on his first series in Australia. He's a smart kid and is disciplined in his bowling because he pitches the ball up not the stupid short ball stuff. Ishant is crap, I don't understand why he can't bowl fuller lengths. I was laughing yesterday when Shane Warne in the commentary said ishant bowled five full length deliveries on the 1st day of this test and the rest were those short of length that were being defended on the backfoot. This guy needs some serious help like is he just dumb or something? Pitch the freaking ball up and you'll get wickets it's not rocket science or anything.[DOUBLEPOST=1419728616][/DOUBLEPOST]

We will be lucky if it turns out to be another Adelaide. The next 2 hours will give a good indication on where the game is headed

I want to see Pujara come good and score a hundred. No.3 is a prestigious position in Test cricket. Its been a while since he got a ton. Last was his brilliant ton at the Wanderers

The pitch seems to be deteriorating just like that adelaide one.

 

[Yuvi.]

That Strike Rate of Rahane!

 

[SaiSrini]

Yes they should think about dropping pujara for sometime- couple months. I would actually promote Rahul at #3. Changing Kohli's order would be bad and unecessary. He's the perfect guy at #4. Also, for all the people who thought pujara was our most reliable test batsman after a couple double hundreds in india is wrong. I think his technique has been really exposed overseas and he needs to make adjustments. People also thought pujara was better than Kohli in tests and I think we've seen what the reality is, quality and technique wise kohli is better. Pujara might have the edge on patience but I think Kohli has alot of patience as well. The shot pujara played this morning was just stupid, there was no need to play at the first ball of the morning especially when it was not even close to the stumps.

Its not really his technique. Pujara still has a pretty solid technique for prospering overseas. Its more about his mental weakness. He gets the starts, and before he gets going, he gets out. If it was about his technique, he should have had quite a few embarassing low scores. But he very rarely gets them. He often gets good starts, but throws it away. That to me, points towards a mental aspect of his game that he needs to work on. It worked for him in domestic cricket, but now that he has transitioned into top flight cricket, he needs tweaks before he becomes perfect. Maybe a longer period in county cricket can also help. Compared to the England tour, he has looked a lot better here which suggests that the county stint post that England tour helped.

 

[Yuvi.]

What a Screamer!
Reaction of Watto though.

 

[namin96]

Its not really his technique. Pujara still has a pretty solid technique for prospering overseas. Its more about his mental weakness. He gets the starts, and before he gets going, he gets out. If it was about his technique, he should have had quite a few embarassing low scores. But he very rarely gets them. He often gets good starts, but throws it away. That to me, points towards a mental aspect of his game that he needs to work on. It worked for him in domestic cricket, but now that he has transitioned into top flight cricket, he needs tweaks before he becomes perfect. Maybe a longer period in county cricket can also help. Compared to the England tour, he has looked a lot better here which suggests that the county stint post that England tour helped.

You might be right. You have some good points. He keeps repeating the mistakes though which is frustrating. I do know that he was given out twice incorrectly in this series so far So yes it might be some part of his mentality that is affecting his game.

 

[Epic]

Pujara averages 75 in India lol, he's just going through a rough patch, quit exaggerating it.

 

[shravi]

Pujara averages 75 in India lol, he's just going through a rough patch, quit exaggerating it.

nah. he's just not got it mentally. it might come with time, but at the moment, he's just not there. as i said after adelaide, in test cricket, only vijay, kohli, and rahane have got the stomach for a fight, and can be trusted to play under pressure, which is unfortunate because pujara is a better batsman than vijay and rahane.

haha, it's so funny hearing chappell still struggling to pronounce rahane, 3 tests in.

 

[Jagar]

Really love seeing Kohli bat. In his commentary for the big bash recently Viv Richards himself was asked which player reminded him most of himself when batting, and he said Virat. I also think his conduct in the field reminds me a lot of Ricky Ponting, (which I think is a good thing, contrary to popular belief). If there was one current player I wish was playing for Australia it would be him.

 

[Epic]

nah. he's just not got it mentally. it might come with time, but at the moment, he's just not there. as i said after adelaide, in test cricket, only vijay, kohli, and rahane have got the stomach for a fight, and can be trusted to play under pressure, which is unfortunate because pujara is a better batsman than vijay and rahane.

haha, it's so funny hearing chappell still struggling to pronounce rahane, 3 tests in.

So his performances in South Africa was just an anomaly? 153 in the 2nd innings against the best bowling attack in the world...

 

[shravi]

So his performances in South Africa was just an anomaly?

well, statistically speaking, you have answered your own question.

 

[themusketeer]

Pujara averages 75 in India lol, he's just going through a rough patch, quit exaggerating it.

Nohit Averages 288 in India , lol

 

[shravi]

LMAO

rahane has to make this count big time now

 

[Jagar]

LOL. That throw to the stumps looked a lot worse than it actually was.

 

[Yuvi.]

Ooh! The Heat is on now!
Words between Johno & Kohli.
Oz Bowlers got to make Kohli play with the new ball.

 

[themusketeer]

Kohli will not Forgive You Johnson