*Official* Australia in India 2023

[OverratedSanity]

Obviously there was still skill differentiation in this game but it did feel like there were times where luck was the main factor in whether batsmen made a decent score or not.

I think this always gets overstated when it comes to such pitches. Time and time again it's the batsmen who are good against spin, and importantly the ones with sound defensive techniques that actually get scores. It defies the nonsensical "Just hit out before you get a ball with your name on it" mentality that people think has a better chance of success on rank turners. Khawaja and Pujara getting the only two fifties was not a coincidence at all and they played pretty sedate innings with basically no slogging. I think it does a serious disservice to guys that do well on such surfaces to say luck was the "main" factor. I don't think there were enough of those completely unplayable balls from what I saw to classify this as one of those where all you do is pray.

By the guidelines the icc have set though , rating it poor is understandable. Definitely way too bowler friendly to be considered a good potch.

 

[Spark]

I think this always gets overstated when it comes to such pitches. Time and time again it's the batsmen who are good against spin, and importantly the ones with sound defensive techniques that actually get scores. It defies the nonsensical "Just hit out before you get a ball with your name on it" mentality that people think has a better chance of success on rank turners. Khawaja and Pujara getting the only two fifties was not a coincidence at all and they played pretty sedate innings with basically no slogging. I think it does a serious disservice to guys that do well on such surfaces to say luck was the "main" factor. I don't think there were enough of those completely unplayable balls from what I saw to classify this as one of those where all you do is pray.

By the guidelines the icc have set though , rating it poor is understandable. Definitely way too bowler friendly to be considered a good potch.

See I thought the batsman who actually looked the best was Smith: sound in defence, scoring freely, and attacking judiciously too. And then he got one which basically he couldn't play and was out, simple as that. That's kind of what I mean by luck. Khawaja definitely had his share of fortune too.

Obviously there were a lot of those "unplayable" balls which will basically never take a wicket. But there were plenty of those which did end up taking wickets too.

 

[Gob]

My take on the captaincy situation is, unofficially, make them co captains

Smith doing daily setting the field stuff where Pat handles media and run the overall team and looks after the big picture stuff. Like Jim and Micheal

 

[Sunil1z]

My take on the captaincy situation is, unofficially, make them co captains

Smith doing daily setting the field stuff where Pat handles media and run the overall team and looks after the big picture stuff. Like Jim and Micheal

This won’t go down well if Aus loses a high profile series. Media would be having a field day .

 

[Gob]

This won’t go down well if Aus loses a high profile series. Media would be having a field day .

That's why it unofficial. Basically a mutual understanding

I actually think this is already the case to an extent

 

[Sunil1z]

Gavaskar blames Jadeja’s no ball for the reason behind India’s loss ?

 

[subshakerz]

My take on the captaincy situation is, unofficially, make them co captains

Smith doing daily setting the field stuff where Pat handles media and run the overall team and looks after the big picture stuff. Like Jim and Micheal

No captain with self respect would have another captain calling the shots on the field while he has to talk to the public.

 

[honestbharani]

This loss is definitely on the batsmen but you really cannot overlook how poor our bowling and their management was on day 1.

 

[subshakerz]

I think this always gets overstated when it comes to such pitches. Time and time again it's the batsmen who are good against spin, and importantly the ones with sound defensive techniques that actually get scores. It defies the nonsensical "Just hit out before you get a ball with your name on it" mentality that people think has a better chance of success on rank turners. Khawaja and Pujara getting the only two fifties was not a coincidence at all and they played pretty sedate innings with basically no slogging. I think it does a serious disservice to guys that do well on such surfaces to say luck was the "main" factor. I don't think there were enough of those completely unplayable balls from what I saw to classify this as one of those where all you do is pray.

By the guidelines the icc have set though , rating it poor is understandable. Definitely way too bowler friendly to be considered a good potch.

Pujara wasnt in uber defensive mode. He was unusually busy in his foot movement and getting out of the crease throughout the innings and looking for scoring shots/gaps.

 

[subshakerz]

This loss is definitely on the batsmen but you really cannot overlook how poor our bowling and their management was on day 1.

You can't expect them to run through a side every match day one.

 

[Daemon]

Pujara wasnt in uber defensive mode. He was unusually busy in his foot movement and getting out of the crease throughout the innings and looking for scoring shots/gaps.

The little ugly shuffle down the track and nudge through midwicket for 1/2 is classic Pujara, don’t think he was unusually busy

 

[honestbharani]

If Pujara can add shots to his armoury, then so can Virat. FFS damnit, learn to sweep and cut like you used to and don't ****ing lunge forward at every ball bowled to you just because you have a pretty cover drive. He cut out these shots and its arguable it helped him have an insane peak, but he is now paying the price for it. Unless he relearns how to wait or judge length before moving forward or back AND actually use the cut shot and sweep shots, he really is only gonna be good to play a lot of balls for few runs, look pretty and then get out coz the fielders are in catching positions all the ****ing time.

 

[subshakerz]

The little ugly shuffle down the track and nudge through midwicket for 1/2 is classic Pujara, don’t think he was unusually busy

Point to me is that I didn't find him unusually defensive, it's just that he has a better defense and excellent footwork but was actively looking to score against tight bowling, which to only way to score here.

 

[subshakerz]

If Pujara can add shots to his armoury, then so can Virat. FFS damnit, learn to sweep and cut like you used to and don't ****ing lunge forward at every ball bowled to you just because you have a pretty cover drive. He cut out these shots and its arguable it helped him have an insane peak, but he is now paying the price for it. Unless he relearns how to wait or judge length before moving forward or back AND actually use the cut shot and sweep shots, he really is only gonna be good to play a lot of balls for few runs, look pretty and then get out coz the fielders are in catching positions all the ****ing time.

Until he got out to an ugly shot, Kohli seemed to have judged length on this pitch better than anyone. I don't trust him sweeping but he should cut more. His main problem is his shot selection hence he keeps getting out lbw.

 

[honestbharani]

Until he got out to an ugly shot, Kohli seemed to have judged length on this pitch better than anyone. I don't trust him sweeping but he should cut more. His main problem is his shot selection hence he keeps getting out lbw.

Its not about trust. He had all the shots in his book except the reverse and switch hits. He just stopped playing them and started going forward to every ball unless it was a literal bouncer. And the shot was not that ugly IMO, ball can keep lower than you expect on these tracks.

Australia could easily have been 5 down today in the first 10 with those balls that kept low and yet they somehow kept getting the bottom edge, inside edge etc. to those and they never went on to the stumps. These things can go either way and it was 2 umpire's calls anyways. I am more worried about how he looked stroke-less against spin at other times in this period. Its the price you pay for cutting out so many scoring options, opting for more consistency in your peak and sacrificing more effectiveness once you are past your peak.

 

[Shri]

sachin began playing the paddle sweep a lot more and started perfecting it when he slowly turned into an accumulator

kohli needs to evolve to really be an atg

 

[Arachnodouche]

Nobody plays the square cut anymore. Not just Kohli, it's literally an extinct stroke. I suppose Root can but even he prefers the dab. But the square cut as a forceful, forward-and-back stroke backward of point is just gone.

 

[Anil]

kohli needs to evolve to really be an atg

he has been devolving these last few years, will require quite an effort to reverse that trend...i think there is very little chance at this point that he will be anything close to an atg at least at test level...

 

[Ashes81]

I think most people here would generally prefer anyone but Smith, not because of the baggage but because he wasn't actually that good at the job and the mental load that it placed on him led to... well, what it led to. But he was excellent in this Test, certainly his best as captain IMO.

As for Cummins, fast bowling captains are a bad idea in general and as much as I've appreciated his off-field leadership, nothing I've seen since he got the job has convinced me otherwise. It's just really difficult to captain a cricket team in tough conditions from mid-on.

I agree about fast bowlers being captains, it's never ideal and with the odd exception, for whatever reason, it seldom seems.to work.

I think the discussion shows how tough the job of captaining your country is.

To be an ideal modern captain, you've got to be assured of your place in the side, be tactically shrewd, be a leader, be media savvy and also lead your life correctly off the pitch.

It's no wonder so few are able to meet all the criteria.

 

[Starfighter]

While I have little issue with the Indore pitch being rated poor in isolation, I do in context:

- it didn't dramatically change and so was more even handed than many a better pitch.
- the absolute farce by which Pakistan got the rating of Rawalpindi pitch raised to average with the reasoning given being blatantly disingenuous, if not downright dishonest.

It certainly produced a far more interesting match than almost any flat track that escapes without censure. I certainly hew more towards the Alex Bowden definition of 'good pitch' these days (a good pitch is anything except the flat batting tracks that are traditionally called 'good').