***Official*** Australia in India 2013 Short formats

[dermo]

what a day for faulkners

 

[Spark]

Lol at Ishant etc etc but holy **** MS Dhoni's shots in the last over were amazing. Perfectly decent deliveries got hammered.

 

[benchmark00]

I was having a beer with my mate watching the first innings and literally one ball before Dhoni did that heaps good helicopter shot down the ground I was on my horse about how he's the only bloke in the world who can play it. I stood up to demonstrate then halfway through my demonstration he played the shot.

Not a single **** was given.

 

[OverratedSanity]

The helicopter shot for six actually travelled more than 100 m. The man is an absolute freak

 

[Shri]

No. Seems to be the bowling equivalent of a FTB, in that he's very dangerous in suitable conditions, yet is pretty ordinary in more foreign conditions.

He did well in the Champions Trophy in England.. Amazing how people have have started calling for his head in a span of six months. He has played 20 games this year and averages 32 odd for his 27 wickets at an ER of less than 6. I don't think there are a lot of bowlers in India who can do better. He has had 2 bad patches in his career and quickly came out of one of 'em. So he will hopefully get back to his best quickly now too.

He just has to bowl his stock delivery more and use his variations sparingly to become effective again. And the legth as well, short and wide filth that he bowls now should be cut down.

 

[Riggins]

I was having a beer with my mate watching the first innings and literally one ball before Dhoni did that heaps good helicopter shot down the ground I was on my horse about how he's the only bloke in the world who can play it. I stood up to demonstrate then halfway through my demonstration he played the shot.

Yeah that shot was outrageous. It's actually unbelievable how much power he gets on those shots down the ground that he plays off basically yorker length balls leaning backwards on one foot.

 

[Arjun]

Indeed. India has a medium paced attack but it takes just two or three bowlers to change that and Yadav/Aaron are both 145kph bowlers. Rahul Shukla and Pavan Suyal both have bowled upwards of 140kp in the IPL too.

But will you risk that? I surely will. Yadav is the only reliable one of this lot, but Aaron and Suyal are in and out of their sides, while Rahul Shukla hasn't even played a full season. The seamers succeeding are slow-medium or slightly-faster-than-medium GTBs who fall apart on a flat track.

He's got a decent off spin slower ball but recent ODIs have really turned me off slower balls to any full time batsmen, unless it is seriously awesome like McKay (even Dernbach and Faulkner's, you can sometimes see coming). I think he has a good action, can bowl good bouncers and yorkers and is an accurate bowler. I think one of the important problems with Vinay Kumar is not his pace but the fact that he has been bowling a lot of bad deliveries. I think Dhawal will bowl fewer of these. Moreover, he has been consistently pushing 140kph when he played IPL cricket and even though I don't think T20 is his perfect format (is a bit expensive for Mumbai Indians), I think it is promising to see him bowling such a good pace. It his hard to go off List A records as a whole* but he has done well in India A ODs against opposition and I think we should take this very seriously as people from A teams come into ODI batting lineups all the time. It is not like Test cricket where there is a more set unit. Maybe he'll be a disappointment like Vinay Kumar, but I think he is certainly worth a go. A lot of people that watched him bowl in Ranji Trophy in India said he was bowling at 135kph and clearly showing a talent for bowling on flat pitches that was better than his peers. I've also heard this about Shami too.

Kulkarni is a limited bowler. He can't do much, at his height well under six feet. A pace attack full of DSKs is fodder and milk for batting sides unless it seams hideously. He can, however, make himself useful if he can get plenty of runs, and do a good job at seven/eight and make way for a proper fifth bowler, not a trundler/flat-pelter who needs full protection. He's surely a much better bowler than Jadeja anyway, because he needs no protection. As a full-fledged all-rounder, he's got the goods, but as a specialist bowler, you need someone over six feet in height.

*Because India don't seem to take domestic OD cricket that seriously. It is a very rushed schedule and a lot of teams rest their best players. There are a lot of dreadful teams in the domestic OD competition that get bowled out for under 150 regularly too. It is all a bit of a joke. I think if we cannot make the FC cricket primarily zonal, we should certainly do so for the OD cricket.

The Vijay Hazare Trophy is a tad dubious, and the variety in pitches is stark. West/South have flat pitches, while North have greentops, Central pitches have plenty of bounce and East has everything. There's one bloke, Shrikant Wagh, who's done well in his early career in OD, but it's still early days, and Vidarbha is no batting paradise in domestic games. Another under-rated bowler is Iqbal Abdulla, left-arm spinner with nearly two wickets a game in 50 matches. Picking on present form can be very unreliable- Ishant was the next best bowler for India, and look at what's happened.

 

[centurymaker]

I can't believe Ashwin has totally lost it.

 

[Shri]

I can't believe Ashwin has totally lost it.

He hasn't. Not many bowlers in India can do a better job than him. Now that is crazy but Ashwin is still the best spin option. Maybe it can be better if he had Mishra as a support spinner. All he has to do is cut back on trying 6 variations in a over and stick to his stock ball more. And he should ideally start bowling soon after the 20th over and build from there. I feel he is being introduced into the attack too late at the moment.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I can't believe Ashwin has totally lost it.

I wasn't aware it had happened. .. Yeah he's bowling **** but "lost it" is taking it too fat

 

[Shri]

I wasn't aware it had happened. .. Yeah he's bowling **** but "lost it" is taking it too fat

Ashwin isn't as fat as he used to be.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Ffs I hate my phone

 

[CricAddict]

Indian team for the next 4 matches announced..Ishant retained and no change in the squad.. Way to go India..

 

[OverratedSanity]

Indian team for the next 4 matches announced..Ishant retained and no change in the squad.. Way to go India..

Yesssssssssss... Lovely. I want him to be scarred for life... He hasn't suffered enough

 

[Arjun]

He hasn't. Not many bowlers in India can do a better job than him. Now that is crazy but Ashwin is still the best spin option. Maybe it can be better if he had Mishra as a support spinner. All he has to do is cut back on trying 6 variations in a over and stick to his stock ball more. And he should ideally start bowling soon after the 20th over and build from there. I feel he is being introduced into the attack too late at the moment.

He's not terrible, but he deserves to be benched for poor bowling- actually, he should have been discarded after the England series itself, for some time, and take stock of which deliveries give him wickets and which ones get hit for sixes. He's good for an all-rounder and a far better bowler than Jadders can ever be even in internet jokes, but this long-hop variation is needless. He cut out on those variations when he bowled against the Aussies in Tests and it worked wonders. I wouldn't take it as far as worst bowler ever, or serious lack of quality, because we've seen worse from blokes not named Mishra and Kartik, and even from Harbhajan. His fielding, though, is a matter of concern, and the sooner Fletch or the next bloke works on it, the better.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Apparently Dhoni has come out and said Ishant Sharma can't be dropped because of one or two bad performances.

One or two. ONE. OR. TWO. ....
MS, I'm lost for words

 

[Shri]

He's not terrible, but he deserves to be benched for poor bowling- actually, he should have been discarded after the England series itself, for some time, and take stock of which deliveries give him wickets and which ones get hit for sixes. He's good for an all-rounder and a far better bowler than Jadders can ever be even in internet jokes, but this long-hop variation is needless. He cut out on those variations when he bowled against the Aussies in Tests and it worked wonders. I wouldn't take it as far as worst bowler ever, or serious lack of quality, because we've seen worse from blokes not named Mishra and Kartik, and even from Harbhajan. His fielding, though, is a matter of concern, and the sooner Fletch or the next bloke works on it, the better.

Yeah lets bench the guy after one bad series. He after all only has 92 test wickets after 16 games. We can find way better bowlers in India at the drop of a hat. Australian selectors give their spinners a fairer chance than you.

 

[Esperance]

"Ishant Sharma is the greatest bowler ever. He doesn't just swing the ball, he swing the whole match."

 

[Maximas]

Maybe Ashwin should open the bowling, it's not like the pace bowlers are getting anything out of the new ball

 

[Arjun]

Yeah lets bench the guy after one bad series. He after all only has 92 test wickets after 16 games. We can find way better bowlers in India at the drop of a hat. Australian selectors give their spinners a fairer chance than you.

If Australia can bench Mitchell Johnson so often for poor performances, despite him being express pace and bowling vicious short ones, why can't India bench Ashwin at least once? Besides, India gave Ishant as much of a fair chance as the Aussies gave Doherty, because this is the weaker area in the bowling. Ishant doesn't have too many replacements- maybe none. Ashwin is in ahead of Mishra and Kartik because of Dhoni's backing, Srini's backing and an age certificate in age-favoured selections. Let nobody's place be taken for granted, young or old.