***Official*** 2nd Test at Adelaide

[Son Of Coco]

This is a pleasant scoreline to arrive home to. Another few quick wickets would be nice though, just to stamp out any semblance of a nuisance partnership.

 

[srbhkshk]

There's just as much if not more variety between different conditions throughout India than there is between Indian and Sri Lankan conditions. Saying that there's some huge difference between all Sri Lankan and Indian pitches is rubbish IMO.

Then how do you explain the huge difference in the home - away record of India - SL matches.

 

[Motorwada]

Serious question, is the climate in SL vastly different from India?

Very. SL's climate is similar to South India's which is hot the year round. North India is way colder and has winters and some places like Dharamsala etc also get snowfall.

 

[Motorwada]

There's just as much if not more variety between different conditions throughout India than there is between Indian and Sri Lankan conditions. Saying that there's some huge difference between all Sri Lankan and Indian pitches is rubbish IMO.

I'd say the same thing about Australia and South Africa as well to an extent. England is very different though.

The balls are different which makes a huge difference.

 

[vcs]

It's not racism of the form 'Go home you ***' but there is a subtle bias. Maybe not on purpose and more due to upbringing as well as the narrative on cricket being very much a white man's one as they invented it but it definitely exists. Case in point - the Rabada village thing from last year by Ian Chappell. More of a subtle prejudice than an in your face xenophobia but it is there.

There's no racism, people are just tired (and a bit salty ) about Kohli remorselessly cashing in on mediocre bowling, something they'd love if their favourite player was doing it. Never mind, we'll soon see India touring away from Asia for their next 3-4 series..

 

[Motorwada]

There's no racism, people are just tired (and a bit salty ) about Kohli remorselessly cashing in on mediocre bowling, something they'd love if their favourite player was doing it. Never mind, we'll soon see India touring away from Asia for their next 3-4 series..

Didn't Root/Smith play against the same SL bowling? The racism I am talking about is undermining Kohli/India's records by saying that playing in/against SL is just like a home game for India.

 

[vcs]

Didn't Root/Smith play against the same SL bowling? The racism I am talking about is undermining Kohli/India's records by saying that playing in/against SL is just like a home game for India.

Yeah, that's why I said "salty"

 

[TheJediBrah]

Didn't Root/Smith play against the same SL bowling? The racism I am talking about is undermining Kohli/India's records by saying that playing in/against SL is just like a home game for India.

You really don't see the difference between Indian-born-and-raised Kohli playing against SL bowling in Asian conditions and Root and Smith doing it?

 

[S.Kennedy]

McGrath stuck in a lift apparently?

 

[GotSpin]

lol racism. jfc

 

[OverratedSanity]

lol racism. jfc

Gavaskar-esque in the rush to pull out the race card

 

[stephen]

You do realize India has the best away record in the last 5 years? And this includes the 2013-14 away tours.

Team records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

India have complete mastery at home and in away conditions that are in the same sphere (SL, WI, Bang etc) so that's like 75% of matches. No other team has that.

Aus not only keeps losing in Asia (Ind, SL, Pak and drawn series in Bang of all places) but also keep losing in England and their victories in SA are offset by their constant home defeats against the same opponent.
Eng also keep losing in Asia and also keep losing in Australia and have been unable to win a series in WI for god knows when. Also they keep losing home matches every series.
As for SA, they just lost heavily to India and England away as well as lost to Eng at home.

The assumption that SL series are 'home tests' for India is like saying 'Eng/SA' tests are home tests for Oz. There is a hint of slight racism which lumps together all 'brown' people into this one homogeneous entity as the 'subcontinent' but SA/Oz/England are all varied.

So here is the thing. I was talking more recently about a quirk of the scheduling giving the Indian ranking a boost.

There's nothing at all racist about saying that subcontinent wickets right now are all very similar. The strengths of all three teams that play at home in the subcontinent are similar and the characteristics of the pitches are similar.

Australia and South Africa have very similar conditions and England and New Zealand have similar conditions to each other. I would expect if there was a decent gap between the two sides then one side would have the upper hand in each of these match ups too. Australia and South Africa are pretty evenly matched though. And England haven't played in New Zealand in the last 4 years (4 years is a much better frame to look at than 5 since 5 takes us past the tour cycle).

And looking at India's record over the last 4 years they've won a single match vs England and lost or drawn every away/neutral match since outside Sri Lanka or the West Indies.

Saying that they have the best away record over the last 4 years is true but not by much at all. They are clearly the best team on low, slow pitches. In the last two years they have played virtually all of their cricket on such pitches, meaning that the rankings don't truly reflect where they're at (since the rankings strongly favour the last two years).

Combined with the fact that they don't play the second best subcontinent team (a team which was ranked #1 during this time) it's hard to tell where India truly are. This also means that their players haven't been thoroughly tested in foreign conditions. Hence the comments about the stats.

Kohli I rate very highly. The rest of the Indian batsmen have a lot to prove. Whether Root/Williamson are better than Kohli or not is up for debate since both are to shelf batsmen. Smith is way ahead of the other three in tests.

I daresay that India over the next two years have their golden opportunity to cement themselves as the best team in the world.

 

[Gnske]

Nothing juicier than a Gaz c&b

 

[Spark]

Wtf was that from moeen.

 

[OverratedSanity]

This is incredibly lame from England

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Moan Ali

 

[Tangles]

Nice grab but wtf was that.

 

[Burgey]

Gavaskar-esque in the rush to pull out the race card

Let’s hope he threatens to leave the thread and go home.

 

[Spark]

Also what the **** is with bringing up racism in this thread. Get in the bin.

 

[mr_mister]

Another wasted start from Moeen. Frustrating


Still think both Moen and Bairstow should bat top 5 next test lol.