humaiyun.hibas
Cricket Spectator
Konstas deserves 9/10. Bumrah got exposed by Konstats. Some of the Australian batsmen have really just needed to have a swing - Bumrah doesn't have the threat of 90mph or a good bouncer so really you just have to step out and hammer him off his length.India:
Jaiswal: Showed some real mental fortitude at two points this series: Once with the big match winning ton at Perth after the golden duck in the first innings and then with the two excellent 80s at Melbourne (the second after shelling 3 catches in the field). Did really well overall in a tough series for batters and is the one really bright spot for the future of this team. 7.5/10
Rahul: Started the series well by playing some key knocks, looked very assured, but never went truly big. And faded as the series went on. Aka typical Rahul. 6/10
Rohit: Truly abominable. Batted like Courtney Walsh, looked uninterested and clueless when on the field, bowling changes made no sense, and pushed Rahul out of the opening slot when he was doing fine. Actively made the team worse by being in it. Zero Vada Pavs/ 10
Kohli: Has turned into a complete joke. The manner of the dismissals is comical in how predictable it is at this point. The one hundred he got was close to worthless because the game was virtually out of reach for Australia at that point anyway. And was at fault for the Jaiswal runout at Melbourne too. Only reason he doesn't get a zero is because he didn't drop as many catches as I thought. Just go away already. 1/10
Gill: He kinda sucks. Just another one of those batsmen who commentators will wax lyrical about when he nails a drive and say "he has a lot of time to play the ball", when the reality is that it looks that way because he barely moves his feet. And when he does, its this laborious plonk down the pitch that gets him in a tangle. 3/10
Paddikal: Had to remind myself he even played this series. 2/10
Pant: First real tough series he's had since 2020. Kept getting starts but nothing substantial in the first three tests. Thought his second innings effort at MCG was actually great, just undone by a terrible dismissal but hey that's Pant. Two pretty awesome innings in contrasting styles the last test to kinda give us a glimmer of hope. Keeping started off terrible but kept improving and thought he was perfectly fine the last couple of tests. 5.5/10
Reddy: His bowling seems toothless but boy, he really saved our bacon several times. Didn't deserve to lose the MCG test in particular for his heroics. Not entirely sure how good of a career he can have unless he develops his bowling but with how shambolic our batting lineup is at the moment, he can be given a few more shots as basically just a lower order bat who rolls his arm over a bit. 7/10
Sundar: One decent fifty (and one woeful instance of Chanders-tier strike management, but honestly what was even the point of selecting him if you're going to bat him at 9 and not give him a bowl? Definition of a wasted spot in the team. Hopefully the team management realise that if he plays (overseas) it should be as a batsman first. Otherwise, just pick someone else ffs. 2/10
Jadeja: Only one good innings that probably saved the game at Brisbane but little else and was awful with the ball. 3/10
Ashwin: Bowled decently in the one chance he got. Flukey wicket, but also drew a misjudgement from Head that could've been taken by a good fielder on another day. Champ, but probably knew the end was near. 3/10
Siraj: Frustrating. Think he got wickets at times undeservedly but other times bowled decently without reward. Had a couple of horrifically bad spells mixed in with the genuinely excellent ones. I want to say he gets a bit of a bad rap at times but the absence of Shami really exposes Siraj's limitations. He's just not good enough to be Bumrah's strike partner. 5/10
Bumrah: Really couldn't have done more. Had complete mastery over his lines, length, swing, bowled with pace and looked like he could get a wicket basically every over he bowled throughout the series. Even had time to save us with the bat with a crucial little partnership with Akashdeep at Brisbane. One of the ATG individual efforts and single-handedly made the series feel competitive when the actual gap between the teams was pretty substantial. 11/10
Rana: He's ass. 2/10
Krishna: He's really ass. I know he took 6 wickets. If he's the next Ishant I dont think we can afford to wait a decade for him to git gud. 3/10
Akashdeep: Damn, and I thought Pankaj Singh was unlucky. This was on another level entirely. Was miles better than Prasidh and probably better than Siraj too with zero luck. Atleast managed that innings with the bat that ended up saving tha game at Brisbane. 6/10
Australia
Khawaja: Bumrah had his number all series but looked a way better player in the one chance he got without him roaring in. 2/10
McSweeney: Tried hard with few runs to show for it, but honestly, he did about as well as any noob batsman could in the circumstances. 2/10
Konstas: One decent if overhyped knock. Going to be interesting to see if he actually tries to bat normally in his next few tests. 5/10
Smith: Two really great tons in between the low scores. Obviously still in decline and but still managed to find a way to contribute vital runs. 6/10
Head: Some great knocks early in the series, faded a bit towards the end when the bowlers cramped him for room. Still made a big impact when he did get those runs though. 8/10
Carey: Kept well. Remains underwhelming af with the bat. Did manage one excellent innings though. 6/10
Marsh: He's lucky Rohit exists otherwise he'd have been the worst performer of the series by a mile. 0/10
Cummins: Kept improving with the ball as the series went on and made vital runs (aided by some of the dumbest bowling plans I've seen in years). 8.5/10
Starc: Still think he's massively overrated and continued his trend of bowling superbly in the D/N game but underwhelming returns in the others. Some of it was down to fitness though so I'm inclined to be less harsh. 6.5/10
Hazelwood: Looked the best aussie bowler before he was replaced by someone who bowled even better. 8/10
Boland: He's scary af. Brought back memories of Philander and Asif with how much seam movement he was able to extract. Add the uncomfortable bounce to that and he looked almost as unplayable as Bumrah (though obviously he played a full teston the spiciest pitch). Australia being able to replace Hazelwood with Boland ended up being the turning point of the series. The **** even made some important runs. 10/10
Lyon: Didn't really have to do much. Did ok at the MCG though. 3/10
Webster: Important runs in both innings, got some decent overs in, caught well. Cant't really ask for much more on debut. 9/10
Konstas showed the way but some of the Aussie batsmen, including Susan, were unfortunately too late to realise
