***Official Australia in India***

[irfan]

If India can't beat a bowling attack of:

Lee
Siddle
Watson
Johnson
White

which basically has only one proven Test bowler, at home, their fans should rightfully tear them a new one.

AWTA. The middle order don't have any excuses to fail and should really get stuck into this attack.

Any one else feel that this is Kumble's last chance of redemption. Obviously he's been hampered by his shoulder injury but an average of more than 60 in his last 8 matches doesn't exactly bode well for this upcoming test. Will probably retain his spot on the strength of his matchwinning performance in his previous outing in Mohali, but he's gotta perform and we're gonna need him.

 

[Nate]

Johnson to have the new ball then probs. Fantastic.

Best of luck Sids. May your moobs spur you on to a ten-fer.

 

[SJS]

Interesting thought, any examples of teams with a huge unbalance between their batting and their bowling?.

Yes that IS an interesting thought let me try and think. Here is the first that comes to mind.

India in Australia 1985-86

The batting consisted of the following (Test averages for the series in brackets).

[B]Player        	Avg[/B]
Gavaskar, 	117.33
Srikkanth,  	72.75
Amarnath, 	74.33
Vengsarkar, 	60
Azharuddin, 	56.5
Shastri, Ravi	45.5
Kapil Dev,	45
Sharma, 	54
Yadav, N S	47
Kirmani, Syed	21
Binny, Roger	19
Sivaramakrishn	15

I dont have to say anything about those figures - they are stunning.

It showed in each and every one of India's innings. They never were required to bat a second time in any of the three Tests. Indian team scores in the series were :

[B]Ground      	Score[/B]
Adelaide	[B]520[/B]
Melbourne	[B]445[/B]
Sydney     	[B]600 for 4[/B] decl

I haven't checked but I doubt if we will find many teams, if any, that scored at 65 runs per wicket over the entire series in Australia or that lost an average of just 8 wickets per Test match without rain interruptions.

It resulted in the only series in India's 62 years of touring Australia that India did not lose a single Test match. Test match.

But that did not help India win the series. India could not win a single Test because they had besides the great Kapil Dev, Roger Binny and Chetan Sharma to bowl with the new ball. Between them the two of them were called upon to bowl just 64 overs in the entire series. In the entire series they took one wicket between them for 195 runs !

India did have a fine triers in off spinner Yadav and Shastri but they werent penetrative. Yadav's 15 wickets took just under 200 overs and Shastri 14 required over 200 !

Siva was finished by this time and his 3 wickets cost 70 runs each.

Its not as if Indian bowlers gave away too many runs. There combined bowling average was 31.5. Put that against their own 65.0 and we should have been run away winners but they lacked penetration.

The combined strike rate was 85.5 !!

Australia just wore them down. The series economy rate for the Indian team (combined) was just 2.2 !!

If we had Zaheer and Ishant in place of Sharma and Binny, we would have won our first series in Australia 42 years ago.

To be continued ..

 

[Uppercut]

Hmm, hard to beat that. Probably worth noting, though, that those strike rates and economy rates were nowhere near as crazy then as they are now.

 

[SJS]

Poor bowling attacks and great batting sides.

India in West Indies 1996-97

Indian batting side

1. Siddhu
2. Dravid
3. Azharuddin
4. Tendulkar
5. Laxman
6. Ganguly
7. Jadeja
8. Mongia

Bowling side

1. Kuruvilla
2. Venkatesh Prasad
3. Doda Ganesh
4. Anil Kumble
5. Sunil Joshi
6. Saurav Ganguly

It was a five Test series that india lost 1-0.

The new ball attack was laughable and Kumble was the only world class bowler.

 

[ret]

Team news

If Kumble plays India will name an unchanged XI. However, if he pulls out India are likely to change their two-spinner strategy and play Munaf Patel as the third fast bowler.

India (likely) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble (capt), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ishant Sharma.

Clark's elbow injury has given Victoria fast bowler Peter Siddle the opportunity to make his debut. He's been preferred over left-arm swing bowler Doug Bollinger to complete the four-man pace attack. Cameron White will hold on to the spinner's spot after a satisfactory performance in Bangalore while Simon Katich's solid performance as opener will keep Phil Jaques out of the XI.

Australia (likely) 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Shane Watson, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Cameron White, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Peter Siddle.

when will India learn?

the days of playing two spinners are long gone unless the pitch is a 'paradis de rotation'

if you are playing 4 bowlers then it should be 3 pacers + 1 spinner .... there is no point in playing 2+2 if you don't have a pace bowling all-rounder or a 3rd seamer .... 2+2 on a normal pitch means your attack is neither here nor there

 

[Top_Cat]

For every McGrath there are likely to be about 20 Mullers, Nicholsons or Cooks.

Yeah but Siddle's a more left-field pick than any of those guys. He's impressed someone, that's for sure. Having seen him bowl, I can see it too. Looks like he'd be tough to face.

Jack?

 

[Matt79]

Good luck to Siddle. Losing Clark to injury is not the ideal way for any player to come in from the team's point of view, but that's got nothing to do with Siddle. It's a short-term negative to the team, but he's a good young prospect and I hope he has a positive debut and gains a lot from the experience - he could definitely play a role in the team in the future, and another option for the selectors never hurts.

Second Victorian test debutant in a row as well.

And debuting in Kumble's last test will make it a memorable occasion...

 

[Matt79]

If India can't beat a bowling attack of:

Lee
Siddle
Watson
Johnson
White

which basically has only one proven Test bowler, at home, their fans should rightfully tear them a new one.

You're forgetting our top-line spinner Clarke...

 

[James90]

Second Victorian test debutant in a row as well.

Did anyone debut between Pattinson and White? Possibly three in a row.

 

[pasag]

If India can't beat a bowling attack of:

Lee
Siddle
Watson
Johnson
White

which basically has only one proven Test bowler, at home, their fans should rightfully tear them a new one.

That said, and initial overreaction aside, if we win the toss I don't see why we can't do as well as we did in the last Test which was pretty much without Clark anyways. With Ponting getting the monkey off his back mentally and the lower middle order of Watson, Haddin and White getting valuable time in the middle, I can't see why we can't put on a similar show. And if the Indian middle order decide to throw their wickets away, you never know...

 

[Top_Cat]

That said, and initial overreaction aside, if we win the toss I don't see why we can't do as well as we did in the last Test which was pretty much without Clark anyways. With Ponting getting the monkey off his back mentally and the lower middle order of Watson, Haddin and White getting valuable time in the middle, I can't see why we can't put on a similar show. And if the Indian middle order decide to throw their wickets away, you never know...

I'm going to go out on a limb and tip him for a good debut. Dunno what it is but he has something about him. Bowlers like Watto sort of kiss the surface of the pitch but Siddle really digs it in, gets bounce when there's none for anyone else. Runs in all day too. If he gets some swing, will be interesting to see how the Indian's handle him.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Also, what happens if Siddle takes ten and Clark's fit for the next test? Johnson will finally miss out?

White will be dropped.

 

[ret]

aren't some overrating Ponting's 100 on the benign Ist day pitch at B'lore against two spinners who are not known to do anything if the pitch has nothing in it for spin? *wondering* .... I would like to see how many times Ponting goes over 50 before jumping around with the idea that Ponting is back to business in India

something tells me that the excitement is not going to last long

 

[Matt79]

Did anyone debut between Pattinson and White? Possibly three in a row.

English caps don't count - we're talking notable achievements here!

 

[Woodster]

Had big hopes for Clark on this track in the 2nd Test. His absence I think will be a huge blow, although I have not seen enough of Siddle to suggest he will be ineffective at Mohali.

Prior to the series I believed Australia were the favourites to win the series, and nothing in the first Test made me think any different. However, if India are get ahead and make it difficult for the Aussies to win the series, they must be positive at Mohali against the inexperienced bowling attack the Aussies will have out. Australia still have an exceptionally strong batting line-up that may dig them out of a hole in this Test, but if the batters are a little of the pace, it may be India's chance to take a 1-0 lead.

 

[Woodster]

English caps don't count - we're talking notable achievements here!

That hurts.

 

[pasag]

aren't some overrating Ponting's 100 on the benign Ist day pitch at B'lore against two spinners who are not known to do anything if the pitch has nothing in it for spin? *wondering* .... I would like to see how many times Ponting goes over 50 before jumping around with the idea that Ponting is back to business in India

something tells me that the excitement is not going to last long

It's more a mental thing then anything, you can tell the pressure was on and now that he's dealt with it he's free to play without it. He's proven himself against spin in the past not to mention he's worked extremely hard on his technique (stories of him spending hours analysing it on video etc), put that together with being one of the very best batsmen in this generation means there's no reason he shouldn't do well in the remainder of the series.

 

[Woodster]

It's more a mental thing then anything, you can tell the pressure was on and now that he's dealt with it he's free to play without it. He's proven himself against spin in the past not to mention he's worked extremely hard on his technique (stories of him spending hours analysing it on video etc), put that together with being one of the very best batsmen in this generation means there's no reason he shouldn't do well in the remainder of the series.

I agree that it was more mental and it was a barrier he simply had to get over. The fact he did, and so impressively, shows the measure of the man. He has obviously worked hard at his game and countering the conditions in India, the guys a class act, and has adjusted his game in order for him to be successful in India. No reason, I agree, why he won't go on from here.

 

[ret]

It's more a mental thing then anything, you can tell the pressure was on and now that he's dealt with it he's free to play without it. He's proven himself against spin in the past not to mention he's worked extremely hard on his technique (stories of him spending hours analysing it on video etc), put that together with being one of the very best batsmen in this generation means there's no reason he shouldn't do well in the remainder of the series.

thats true .... and I hope that he does well but let's not forget that he was similar batsman on earlier tour too. it's not like he has improved by leaps and bounds on this tour .... yes, a bit more hard work both mentally and technically, some luck, but still the verdict will be out on him once the series is over and not because of what he did in the Ist innings at B'lore