***Official*** India in Australia 2011/12

[BoyBrumby]

Michael Clarke says hi.

As for Ponting and Hussey good on them this is what we needed from them in the past. If even one of them stood up in example 1, 2, 3 then go right ahead and use the experience card, but when there are three scores under 100 then you have to ask where were the experience guys?

Point is they've done it before. Their records grant them a little selectorial largesse. & as the next in line seems to be Dan Christian, I don't mind Invers et al backing the chaps who've got the tee-shirts.

Hand on heart, do you really think Christian (or Bailey, Hughes, Khawaja or whoever) would've scored in this test more than Ponting or Hussey?

 

[Top_Cat]

Good thing the next test is at Sydney. The best place for our batsmen to get some form back. The Australian bowling has been real good in this test though. Will be yet another interesting game and can't start quick enough.

Depends on how the pitch is prepped. If it's anything like Shield pitches have been this year......

 

[Cruxdude]

Depends on how the pitch is prepped. If it's anything like Shield pitches have been this year......

The parade will continue.

 

[Xuhaib]

the biggest worry for India is its been 4 years and the replacement for Ganguly is still being sought and to top this they may have to look for 3 more replacement over the next couple of years. Despite the poor start to his career I would give Kohli all 4 tests here. Yes, there are few technical issues that needs to be adressed but imo he has the tools to be a top top test match batsman

 

[howardj]

Good performance by Australia, but I have the feeling that the series has a long way to run, with India traditionally being slow starters.

A few observations:

- Pattinson seems a real star in the making. He pitches the ball up, bowls at the stumps and has some real chutzpah

- Kudos to Siddle and Hilfenhaus who seemed to have really worked hard on their games

- I still don't think Ponting/Hussey should have been selected, but they really knuckled down and showed some grit in the 2nd innings to take the game away from India

- Perfect time to bring Wade in for Haddin; we need to stagger the exits of he, Hussey and Ponting (with the latter two now seemingly there for the rest of the Summer, it's a good time for Haddin to depart)

- Yadav was a revelation, and more broadly India's quicks were better than expected

- India seemed to lose the plot when bowling to the tail in the 2nd innings; Dhoni needs to really reflect on this and the way things fell apart

 

[Sylvester]

Point is they've done it before. Their records grant them a little selectorial largesse. & as the next in line seems to be Dan Christian, I don't mind Invers et al backing the chaps who've got the tee-shirts.

Hand on heart, do you really think Christian (or Bailey, Hughes, Khawaja or whoever) would've scored in this test more than Ponting or Hussey?

I wasn't questioning their place in the side however if Watson was fit for this match then I would have had no problem putting him at 4 or 6 depending on who was dropped. My point was you can't go throwing around the experience card for keeping players when we have had not one, not two but three collapses under 100 including 9/21 in the past 18 months. If this so called experience was so valuable then where were they in those collapses?

 

[Cruxdude]

- India seemed to lose the plot when bowling to the tail in the 2nd innings; Dhoni needs to really reflect on this and the way things fell apart

AWTA. Dhoni doesn't seem to acknowledge that his tactics when bowling to the tail is ****.

 

[Burgey]

Point is they've done it before. Their records grant them a little selectorial largesse. & as the next in line seems to be Dan Christian, I don't mind Invers et al backing the chaps who've got the tee-shirts.

Hand on heart, do you really think Christian (or Bailey, Hughes, Khawaja or whoever) would've scored in this test more than Ponting or Hussey?

Hammer. Nail. Head.

 

[Burgey]

I wasn't questioning their place in the side however if Watson was fit for this match then I would have had no problem putting him at 4 or 6 depending on who was dropped. My point was you can't go throwing around the experience card for keeping players when we have had not one, not two but three collapses under 100 including 9/21 in the past 18 months. If this so called experience was so valuable then where were they in those collapses?

I think if Watson was fit tomorrow he'd come in for Marsh tbh.

He was also part of some of those collapses, as were Usman and the Prince.

 

[Burgey]

the biggest worry for India is its been 4 years and the replacement for Ganguly is still being sought and to top this they may have to look for 3 more replacement over the next couple of years. Despite the poor start to his career I would give Kohli all 4 tests here. Yes, there are few technical issues that needs to be adressed but imo he has the tools to be a top top test match batsman

In fairness to Kohli, it's hard to know how you're going when you cop a first baller. Can happen to anyone.

I haven't seen him play tests much at all, but I thought he was meant to be crap against the short ball. He hasn't been in long enough to get bounced yet

 

[adub]

My 2c on the Ponting issue...

Yeah he's scored 4 50s in the last 4 tests and was a big contributor to the win here.

BUT, even with those 4 50s he's still just barely averaging 40 in those same 4 tests. So his best form in the last 12 months is only just barely test standard. The point is he has to maintain this 50 per test strike rate to just hold his place. If this is a precursor to a renaissance where he starts peeling off the scores and is averaging 50+ then great, beautiful, you showed me Punter, all hail Ricky. But as was pointed out he had a similar run of 50s in India/Brisbane a year ago and then backed it up with a year averaging less than 30.

At least someone like Mark Waugh used to peel off a glorious ton when his spot came under the microscope. I really does look to me that Ponting just can't stay in long enough to score a ton now. That means the 50s have to come much more often. I don't think he has that in him either. Lets face it, he looked comical starting in the first dig, and India were bowling absolute rubbish. If they had bowled as well as they did for most of the rest of the game he would have been on his bike. Ponting's experience hasn't helped a damn recently in Hobart, Cape Town, Melbourne, Adelaide, etc etc.

So yeah great Rick, well done, but for me I only see that buying him Sydney. All the talk of George Bailey is so much ****. George Bailey isn't the guy to take his spot. There's a guy named Watson that seems to have slipped people's memories. He could be back for Perth, and if Ponting doesn't back up with more runs in Sydney then he'd be the guy who'd be making way if I were picking the team. If we're going to have a guy making sub 40 in the top 6 then I'll take the one with the sub 30 bowling average who isn't 37. Only Watson's continued absence should save him. Without a lot more runs I wouldn't be giving him a flight to the Caribbean.

 

[Sylvester]

I think if Watson was fit tomorrow he'd come in for Marsh tbh.

He was also part of some of those collapses, as were Usman and the Prince.

Now he would however remove hindsight and all you have is Marsh making an outstanding start to his test career while Ponting has averaged 24 for 2011 and Hussey did nothing in two test series.

Khawaja was never part of the collapses. Hughes been dropped already so he's been made to pay already. Watson is an opener him failing should not mean 9/21. However question is still there, if experience was so valuable where were the experienced guys in the collapse? Take out those collapses and you can throw the experience card around willy nilly however they are there and it wasn't a one time occurrence.

 

[fast>spin]

My 2c on the Ponting issue...

Yeah he's scored 4 50s in the last 4 tests and was a big contributor to the win here.

BUT, even with those 4 50s he's still just barely averaging 40 in those same 4 tests. So his best form in the last 12 months is only just barely test standard. The point is he has to maintain this 50 per test strike rate to just hold his place. If this is a precursor to a renaissance where he starts peeling off the scores and is averaging 50+ then great, beautiful, you showed me Punter, all hail Ricky. But as was pointed out he had a similar run of 50s in India/Brisbane a year ago and then backed it up with a year averaging less than 30.

At least someone like Mark Waugh used to peel off a glorious ton when his spot came under the microscope. I really does look to me that Ponting just can't stay in long enough to score a ton now. That means the 50s have to come much more often. I don't think he has that in him either. Lets face it, he looked comical starting in the first dig, and India were bowling absolute rubbish. If they had bowled as well as they did for most of the rest of the game he would have been on his bike. Ponting's experience hasn't helped a damn recently in Hobart, Cape Town, Melbourne, Adelaide, etc etc.

So yeah great Rick, well done, but for me I only see that buying him Sydney. All the talk of George Bailey is so much ****. George Bailey isn't the guy to take his spot. There's a guy named Watson that seems to have slipped people's memories. He could be back for Perth, and if Ponting doesn't back up with more runs in Sydney then he'd be the guy who'd be making way if I were picking the team. If we're going to have a guy making sub 40 in the top 6 then I'll take the one with the sub 30 bowling average who isn't 37. Only Watson's continued absence should save him. Without a lot more runs I wouldn't be giving him a flight to the Caribbean.

Dire. Ricky Ponting is the finest batsman to have played cricket since the great Richards. If he requires time to get back into form then time should be given. He will bow out when he realized it is time. To suggest removing Ricky, preposterous!

You know I don't mean to shut out the idea entirely but with what Ricky has done for Australian cricket and heights he has reached he has earned months if not at least a year more to sort things out. He is pure class and it's a matter of confidence and luck not of skill.

 

[Sylvester]

Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), Brad Haddin, Ed Cowan, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mike Hussey, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, James Pattinson, Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle, David Warner (12th man to be named).

Nice to see our squad being named so early.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Something about Peter Siddle having more test wickets than Fred Spofforth doesn't sit well with me.

Fred Spofforth had no heart and only ran in hard for half the day.

 

[Athlai]

So that should work out to be:

Warner
Cowan
Marsh
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Haddin
Siddle
Pattinson
Harris
Lyon

12th Hilf

Sort of hope it's a green pitch and they go in with 4 seamers instead though with Clarke and Warner bowling a wee bit of spin.

 

[adub]

Dire. Ricky Ponting is the finest batsman to have played cricket since the great Richards. If he requires time to get back into form then time should be given. He will bow out when he realized it is time. To suggest removing Ricky, preposterous!

You know I don't mean to shut out the idea entirely but with what Ricky has done for Australian cricket and heights he has reached he has earned months if not at least a year more to sort things out. He is pure class and it's a matter of confidence and luck not of skill.

Ponting has been mostly **** with rare patches of mediocre for 3 years. Being great in 2002 doesn't mean **** in 2012. He's had his years to sort it out. Now it is time to deliver or **** off. Not in a few months time, in Sydney next week. An average of 40 over 4 tests being held up as reason to get off his back is what's preposterous. To suggest that just because he was once great gives him the right to choose his own departure after 3 years of failure is what's preposterous.

 

[Crazy Sam]

Warner's leg spin wasn't so bad; if he flights it a bit more and doesn't drop it short so much it might be a decent option.

 

[fast>spin]

Ponting has been mostly **** with rare patches of mediocre for 3 years. Being great in 2002 doesn't mean **** in 2012. He's had his years to sort it out. Now it is time to deliver or **** off. Not in a few months time, in Sydney next week. An average of 40 over 4 tests being held up as reason to get off his back is what's preposterous. To suggest that just because he was once great gives him the right to choose his own departure after 3 years of failure is what's preposterous.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make you angry, it's just that I have great respect for Ponting and can't advocate dropping him like that. And that's interesting I didn't know his average was that low. To be fair though those were all very low scoring matches so runs in these last few matches count for a lot. But I see your point.

 

[Ruckus]

Yeah agree with most of what adub said. The problem with Ponting scoring a few 50's every now and again to keep his place in the side, is that I don't think he'll be able to maintain that...to stay in the side by scoring 50's, you have to be scoring them at Watson-esque rate otherwise you just aren't going to be contributing enough. Watson typically has been a very good starter, and so it seems more feasible he would be able to maintain that level, but Ponting, even in his prime years, has always been edgy when he first comes out to the crease. If he can't convert those 50's, I have no faith whatsoever he'll be able to score them regularly enough. Just like after the tour of India period, I can see a lot of very small scores coming up in between...

If Ponting can somehow muster an average of 40 for the next period, then I'd be happy enough to keep him on, but anything less than that, and frankly we do have better replacement options imo. Khawaja and Watson are the two obvious ones. Khawaja might not be better immediately, but I'd be confident he'll be a consistent run scorer in due course - he just needs more games to settle into test cricket and start playing more naturally.