You give your best batsman their favourite position so Smith bats 4. This was Smith's worst BG trophy and he only averaged 44 so it's difficult to remember that he's hit 8 hundreds in 14 tests at an average of 73, including 3 hundreds averaging 60 in India.
Also makes Lolhi's batting average drop below 50. Agreed.
But kholi did it against an Australian attack at home
Shewag.
Without SCG performances (in brackets overall average for tour)
His wife is extremely funny on social media too. They will make a great pair doing some kind of stand up act or routine, or even hosting some show, I think. The only ones I think who are similar are perhaps Sehwag and his wife but I think Viru is much funnier than Aarti. Here, I think its a dead heat between Ashwin and Prithi.The funniest part was when Ashwin said "when I told my wife families aren't allowed on the tour, she said 'OK, then I'll find a new guy to marry'".He said it in a deadpan way which was very funny.
Even in India I remember he was dropped numerous times and beaten literally sooooo many times. He had given up on playing for the spin. (for example against Jadeja, would just play for the ball coming in straight, and not bother with normal left arm spinning deliveries. Leave his bat out and hope the ball goes past the edge. It was another hacksy ploy but it required significant luck to go his way.
Hmm I'd give another tour to be sure of that. He made so many runs last series so that must be some damn luck.
Yeah lets not take the trolling too far now, he was incredible in that series.
TBF, that is still a strategy to play spin in India. And Smith also kept his bat close to the pad so the chances of the edge were as minimal as he could make them to be Very similar to how Pujara plays the seamers in Australia. He was very lucky in Pune and his other 100s did come in much friendlier batting conditions (perhaps the best batting conditions of the respective tests) but he had a very good strategy to play spin and I think the others tried to follow him as best as they could too. I remember how long it took Ash to get Warner in the first test, coz he was playing with a similar strategy. There would be entire overs he would get beaten but he was there and ultimately put enough runs on the board.
Hate to break it to you but Sachin averaged 35 in Australia outside the SCG, over 15 tests in 5 tours. The SCG brings his average up to 53 in Australia, given he scored half his centuries there. In fact, in most of those tours the SCG test was a dead rubber.
You are picking a fight where there is none. I dont think the white ball wickets at Sydney and Canberra were that different and Brisbane was as good for batting as Sydney, perhaps better because of the truer bounce and faster pace. It was just amazing that he basically tonned up everytime he batted at Sydney and did not ton up anywhere else. Just a funny trivia kinda thing.
