***Official*** India's Tour of Australia 2020/21 - General discussion

[harsh.ag]

Play time's over, on to finer pastures.

Fixtures: (H/T aussietragic for the update)

ODIs
Nov 27 - SCG, Sydney
Nov 29 - SCG, Sydney
Dec 1 - Manuka Oval, Canberra

T20s
Dec 4 - Manuka Oval, Canberra
Dec 6 - SCG, Sydney
Dec 8 - SCG, Sydney

Tests
Dec 17-21 - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (D/N)
Dec 26-30 - MCG, Melbourne (with Adelaide as back up)
Jan 7-11 - SCG, Sydney
Jan 15-19 - The Gabba, Brisbane

 

[harsh.ag]

News arriving that India may pick 6 pacers and 3 spinners in their 18 man test squad, which seems overkill. The other 3 pacers in consideration are Umesh, Saini, and Siraj. Doesn't leave room for many reserve batsmen. At most 2 of KL, Shaw, Gill and Iyer will make it.

Pandya most likely won't be in the squad. Another bummer, but there seem to be fitness issues. Cloud over Pant's selection as well because of weight issues.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Didnt realize it was only a month away. I'm excited to see Bumrah especially, some encouraging signs in the IPL that he may be getting back to his best. Battle of the flailing tube dolls should be fun.

 

[duffer]

Survive the Gabbatoir and we win the series. Not likely though

 

[duffer]

Hang on, pink ball Test too. ****

 

[OverratedSanity]

Hang on, pink ball Test too. ****

That's our best chance to win a test though

 

[NotMcKenzie]

I haven't been looking forward to this, and still won't be. Whoever scheduled this should have got the sort of treatment they'd've got in a communist country for stepping out of line with prevailing thought (or at least the equivalent for these days). With this quick turnaround from the last series, Aus vs India is on the level of Aus vs England for 'too often'. I know commercial considerations, yadda, yadda, but still. And we don't even get to see Afghanistan.
....


With that rant out of the way at the start, my main interest is to see whether Australia manage to actually put up a disciplined bowling performance this time. I'm not sure how many people agree with me, but I thought that our bowlers went about their job quite indifferently in the last series. They did not seem to have plans or any idea how to go on the defensive if wickets weren't on offer—something the Indians were excellent at—, and looked like they were relying on a percieved superiority of raw to talent to hope India out.

Given his struggles in the IPL, I'm also worried about Smith's form, and the rest of our batting (except for Warner and Labuschagne) has question marks all over it.

First big question of the series in fact: Will Australia be able to dismiss Agarwal cheaply?

 

[Nintendo]

I haven't been looking forward to this, and still won't be. Whoever scheduled this should have got the sort of treatment they'd've got in a communist country for stepping out of line with prevailing thought (or at least the equivalent for these days). With this quick turnaround from the last series, Aus vs India is on the level of Aus vs England for 'too often'. I know commercial considerations, yadda, yadda, but still. And we don't even get to see Afghanistan.
....


With that rant out of the way at the start, my main interest is to see whether Australia manage to actually put up a disciplined bowling performance this time. I'm not sure how many people agree with me, but I thought that our bowlers went about their job quite indifferently in the last series. They did not seem to have plans or any idea how to go on the defensive if wickets weren't on offer—something the Indians were excellent at—, and looked like they were relying on a percieved superiority of raw to talent to hope India out.

Given his struggles in the IPL, I'm also worried about Smith's form, and the rest of our batting (except for Warner and Labuschagne) has question marks all over it.

First big question of the series in fact: Will Australia be able to dismiss Agarwal cheaply?

Agree on the bowling front, starc and haze where extremely inconsistent that series, hopefully they perform better this time. Smith's form isn't a concern, bloke loves playing India as much as he does England marnus warner and him will put together enough runs to win games, don't need a ton from the other guys.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

The squads for India have been announced:

Test squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar, Ajinkya(vc), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj

ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vc & wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur

T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vc & wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

From BCCI Twitter

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

No Rohit Sharma.
They're probably being safe with this

 

[honestbharani]

Rohit and Ishant (and Bhuvi) not selected coz if injuries. Not convinced by the ODI side. Seems like they put least effort on that and its a very lazy selection. Like the T20I side, Would rather have Rohit and Ishant in the test side. Chahal should not be in the ODI side if it were upto me.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

When are the T20s? They're not on the schedule harsh posted

 

[Pratters]

First test series win would be nice. One can hope, can't one?

 

[Pup Clarke]

How tf is Shardul Thakur in an ODI squad? He's very ordinary

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Isn't that a question people have been asking for some time now?

 

[Burgey]

Would nostrils be favourite to replace ISharma in the test side? And who's likely to replace RSharma in the middle order?

Gabbatoir and Adelaide D/N first up is about as good as Australia could have hoped for with no Perth test on the schedule.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I think I've heard that on the forum before yeah, but it's just baffling! Saini in all three formats looks a bit much at this stage, but could see him potentially doing well in the test series if an opportunity arises

 

[Pup Clarke]

Would nostrils be favourite to replace ISharma in the test side? And who's likely to replace RSharma in the middle order?

Gabbatoir and Adelaide D/N first up is about as good as Australia could have hoped for with no Perth test on the schedule.

Umesh probably will get the nod yeah, but he really shouldn't, especially looking at his style (pitch up looking for swing). Saini and Siraj both look much more conducive to bowling in Australian conditions, as they both hit the deck hard

Shubnam Gill will probably get the middle order role, although I imagine Rohit was presumed to open? KL Rahul or Vihari I'd imagine will come in for him with Gill slotting in at 6

 

[stephen]

I thought the Gabba was in January now?

Likely to get severe storms in November, looking at the forecast. Two days ago we had hail that was being driven sideways by the wind, which is a violent storm even by Brisbane standards.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Umesh probably will get the nod yeah, but he really shouldn't, especially looking at his style (pitch up looking for swing). Saini and Siraj both look much more conducive to bowling in Australian conditions, as they both hit the deck hard

Shubnam Gill will probably get the middle order role, although I imagine Rohit was presumed to open? KL Rahul or Vihari I'd imagine will come in for him with Gill slotting in at 6

the CI report said it was between Gill and Shaw for one opener spot, and although BCCI do some weird **** i don't think they're very keen on forcing a makeshift opener in Straya