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*Official* Road to India in Australia 2011/12

WWW the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2011/12?


  • Total voters
    38

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Point of order: shouldn't the thread title be "Road to the Border/Gavaskar Trophy 2011/12"?

"Road to India in Australia" makes no sense geographically speaking.

Anyway:

3-1 Australia. India will win a Test because at some point in the series some random Indian "fast" bowler will be annointed the saviour of Indian pace bowling by inducing a collapse and winning a Test, before 5 years of spectacular rubbishness (see also Ajit Agarkar at Adelaide in 2003 and Irfan Pathan in 2008 at Perth). Nothing surer about an Australia-Indian series.

Really can't believe the Australian pessimism. India's bowling is seriously crap. Australia's bowling is much better than England made it look in the Ashes. You'll win this series easily.
Yeah, inclined to agree. A fit Zaheer (sighted as regularly as Nessie being ****ed by Bigfoot, admittedly) would make a difference, but I honestly don't see grounds for all the rampant pessimism from yer crims.

This is going to be much more difficult than the England tour.

Oz is the final frontier for Indian sides.
:huh:

Much more difficult than a tour you lost 4-0. In a four test series. Interesting.

Short of a fatality or two one struggles to see how much harder it could be.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Since when did you Aussies turn all cheese eating surrender monkey?

I take it normal, bullish service will be resumed after you beat South Africa.
 

centurymaker

Cricketer Of The Year
agree that 4-0 win to aus is more likely than india winning the series.

Zaheer is injured & Ishant will prob get injured during the series, so how will india take 20 wickets a couple of times to win the series?
 

morgieb

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agree that 4-0 win to aus is more likely than india winning the series.

Zaheer is injured & Ishant will prob get injured during the series, so how will india take 20 wickets a couple of times to win the series?
Isn't Ishant out of Australia as well or am I just imagining things?
 

ganeshran

International Debutant
:huh:

Much more difficult than a tour you lost 4-0. In a four test series. Interesting.

Short of a fatality or two one struggles to see how much harder it could be.
I was talking from a historical perspective. the current english side is very strong at home, but we have won series there before, most recently in 2007. But we have never ever won in Australia in our cricketing history
 

Top_Cat

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Since when did you Aussies turn all cheese eating surrender monkey?

I take it normal, bullish service will be resumed after you beat South Africa.
No-one's denying the Indian bowling is pretty average. The question is really whether they'll be as average as in England with 400+ in the bank. I don't think they will, myself.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
I still think you guys are underestimating your bowling massively. Yes, they had a welcome habit of bowling absolute dross against us, but on current form England are the best batting unit in the world; you won't come up against a side as strong as England this summer. We also came into the series with a ton of preparation, which IMO affected Johnson in particular - for years people have moaned that he gets wickets by inducing batsmen to nick balls they don't need to play. Perth aside, where IIRC the majority of his wickets were bowled/lbws, he didn't perform well, because England had clearly done their homework and knew exactly what to expect from him.

Take out the England series and Australia have bowled pretty well in the last 2-3 years; 3rd Test in South Africa aside, I can't recall many occasions where Australia's bowling has been utterly spanked - even the horror show at Lord's in 2009 was pulled back to a degree, only Strauss and Cook actually made any score of substance IIRC.

You've come off the back of an impressive win in Sri Lanka - although they're without Murali, Sri Lanka away is not an easy series to win, and your bowling unit bowled with good discipline and wrecked Sri Lanka in the 1st Test. Your attack will have home conditions, where they will thrive, and an Indian batting order that will have several holes. Sehwag's fitness is in doubt. Gambhir has never encountered Australian conditions and is susceptible to the shorth ball. Dravid, magnificent as he was in England, had a poor time of it last time out and the West Indies series for him will be key to finding form. Ditto Tendulkar and Laxman, who were poor in England. Whoever bats 6 will either be inexperienced, having never played in Australia, or crap.

Yes, the batting still looks weak and prone to collapses; in a 4 Test series I reckon they'll probably cost you a Test. But they'll be up against an utterly mediocre attack who really shouldn't pose you too many questions.
 

Burgey

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Can a Mod confirm Indiaregulator will be back for this series?

We need fresh fish.
 

Top_Cat

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I still think you guys are underestimating your bowling massively. Yes, they had a welcome habit of bowling absolute dross against us, but on current form England are the best batting unit in the world; you won't come up against a side as strong as England this summer. We also came into the series with a ton of preparation, which IMO affected Johnson in particular - for years people have moaned that he gets wickets by inducing batsmen to nick balls they don't need to play. Perth aside, where IIRC the majority of his wickets were bowled/lbws, he didn't perform well, because England had clearly done their homework and knew exactly what to expect from him.

Take out the England series and Australia have bowled pretty well in the last 2-3 years; 3rd Test in South Africa aside, I can't recall many occasions where Australia's bowling has been utterly spanked - even the horror show at Lord's in 2009 was pulled back to a degree, only Strauss and Cook actually made any score of substance IIRC.
Well, you know I don't disagree with any of that, one of the few defenders of the Aussie bowling on here. The young back-up is as good as we've seen for a while too (if a little green). The problems aren't so much there, though....

You've come off the back of an impressive win in Sri Lanka - although they're without Murali, Sri Lanka away is not an easy series to win, and your bowling unit bowled with good discipline and wrecked Sri Lanka in the 1st Test. Your attack will have home conditions, where they will thrive,
Big doubts here for mine. There's a suspicion that Copeland has taken so many wickets at Shield level because he's been the beneficiary of the bowler-friendly nature of Shield wickets the past couple of years and, tbh, I share that view. Even if the bowlers do bowl relatively well (and there's question marks there), will they bowl well enough to negate the influence of the Indian batters?

In summary, the bowling's 'good' when, against the Indian line-up, in my view, it needs to be closer to 'great'.

and an Indian batting order that will have several holes. Sehwag's fitness is in doubt. Gambhir has never encountered Australian conditions and is susceptible to the shorth ball .
Has two ODI tons here, though. Not Tests but they do count. And he's a far better player now, wasn't even in the Test side then.

Dravid, magnificent as he was in England, had a poor time of it last time out and the West Indies series for him will be key to finding form. Ditto Tendulkar and Laxman, who were poor in England. Whoever bats 6 will either be inexperienced, having never played in Australia, or crap.
Don't think that matters, tbh. Neither scored a ton but I watched a fair bit of the series and they didn't look out of form. Laxman in particular looked good before throwing away some potentially good scores. And I reckon Tendulkar just faced some excellent bowling. England are just too ****ing good right now.

On the plus side, I reckon guys like Mick Clarke are due to bust out some good scores. In fairness, there are a heap of unpredictable factors in this series, I could just as easily be wrong on every point above.
 
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Burgey

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I think someone said a few weeks back that they have one or two before the first test.
 

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