**Official** 4th Test at Melbourne, 26-30 Dec 2024

[Spark]

He's fine, he can hold his place as a batsman and he played a great knock in the previous test. As long as the team trusts Kuldeep and gives him a long rope at home and Bumrah stays fit, there's not that much doom and gloom in home conditions.

I'm just reminded of post-McWarne Aus in this regard tbh. Everyone sort of figured the bowling would sort itself out and that though there would be a dip, it was actually years of really mid attacks being rolled out even at home. Truly great players - like Ashwin and Jadeja - are extremely hard to replace, no matter who their backups are (not least because there is a big difference between being a quality backup and being the main man).

Having said that I'm only talking about Jadeja's bowling. As an all-round package he's clearly streets ahead of the rest still.

 

[honestbharani]

He's fine, he can hold his place as a batsman and he played a great knock in the previous test. As long as the team trusts Kuldeep and gives him a long rope at home and Bumrah stays fit, there's not that much doom and gloom in home conditions.

I think a MO and Lower MO of

Pant
NKR
Jaddu
Washy

gives us the flexibility to play Kuldeep at 9 and 2 seamers at home, and make it 3 seamers when playing away esp. in SENA. If Kuldeep and Harshit come through enough with the bat and Akashdeep can actually improve like Bumrah has, we can even consider playing Kuldeep at 8 in SENA.

 

[Arachnödouche2.0]

Ganguly was always a petty fvck, that much I agree with HB. Goes all the way back to him refusing drinks duty as a 19 year-old. Subsequent incidents like keeping Waugh waiting for the toss, not playing at Nagpur, the shirt-waving jibe at Flintoff at Lord's were glossed over with nationalistic fervor but they all point to an effeminate man who holds grudges and teabags his opponents' faces when he gets the chance.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Jadeja and Sundar are primarily batsmen in overseas conditions, and one of India's biggest selection howlers is not recognizing that fact to change the team composition accordingly. They are not bowling all rounders. Dropping Ashwin thinking Sundar(especially)/Jadeja can do the same job with the ball and dropping Jadeja(or even Axar in home conditions) thinking Gill or Rohit or Kohli can do the same job with the bat is braindead. They haven't profiled the spin bowling all rounders we've produced and it really blows.

 

[Starfighter]

Chuck Berry on radio this morning with more of this garbage - actually claimed that the wicketkeeper's opinion is more reliable than ball-tracking and is "99% accurate"

The keeper can't even see the latter part of the flight and impact.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Ganguly was always a petty fvck, that much I agree with HB. Goes all the way back to him refusing drinks duty as a 19 year-old. Subsequent incidents like keeping Waugh waiting for the toss, not playing at Nagpur, the shirt-waving jibe at Flintoff at Lord's were glossed over with nationalistic fervor but they all point to an effeminate man who holds grudges and teabags his opponents' faces when he gets the chance.

That's barely scratching the surface of Ganguly's terrible behaviour. Tried to cheat at a toss once claiming that heads was actually tails lol. Claiming a catch at slip in the 2003 WC final that bounced a foot in front of him was hilarious too

 

[Wanna_Be_AB]

Pretty sure he learnt that from Punter

 

[OverratedSanity]

Ganguly was always a petty fvck, that much I agree with HB. Goes all the way back to him refusing drinks duty as a 19 year-old. Subsequent incidents like keeping Waugh waiting for the toss, not playing at Nagpur, the shirt-waving jibe at Flintoff at Lord's were glossed over with nationalistic fervor but they all point to an effeminate man who holds grudges and teabags his opponents' faces when he gets the chance.

Him chickening out at Nagpur leaving poor Dravid to go out there as captain last minute for the upcoming series loss is easily his worst act. Cowardly as ****. I've hated him since.

 

[Spark]

Him chickening out at Nagpur leaving poor Dravid to go out there as captain last minute for the upcoming series loss is easily his worst act. Cowardly as ****. I've hated him since.

Has it ever been confirmed that he really did just chicken out once he saw the pitch? I've always struggled to believe that because of just how bad that would be if true, I always figured it was an exaggeration.

 

[Wanna_Be_AB]

Him chickening out at Nagpur leaving poor Dravid to go out there as captain last minute for the upcoming series loss is easily his worst act. Cowardly as ****. I've hated him since.

Talking about Dravid, is there a more likeable cricketer than him?

 

[Window]

Having Pant as a top 5 batsman while keeping and then having 6-8 allrounders as your key batsman that barely bowl is a team composition that makes absolutely no sense to me. As SS said, it’s an indictment of your FC level of you can’t find proper middle order bats to bat in the top 6. India turning their knack of needing to rely on their lower middle order to make runs into a selection strategy is frustrating.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Has it ever been confirmed that he really did just chicken out once he saw the pitch? I've always struggled to believe that because of just how bad that would be if true, I always figured it was an exaggeration.

More or less confirmed he had a shitfight with the curator (who himself is a bit of a dick and intentionally prepared a nasty pitch for the lulz) because the pitch looked like it was perfect for Australia. His "injury" was very sus. Bhajji was also accused of chickening out, but I dont buy that tbh.

 

[Spark]

The keeper can't even see the latter part of the flight and impact.

It was an extremely strange line of argument. Just going on about how you "know it's going to hit the stumps" even though the whole point of LBW is... you don't... because the pad is in the way...

 

[Sunil1z]

More or less confirmed he had a shitfight with the curator (who himself is a bit of a dick and intentionally prepared a nasty pitch for the lulz) because the pitch looked like it was perfect for Australia. His "injury" was very sus. Bhajji was also accused of chickening out, but I dont buy that tbh.

Internal BCCI politics
Pawar trying to get back at Dalmia

 

[Arachnödouche2.0]

Having Pant as a top 5 batsman while keeping and then having 6-8 allrounders as your key batsman that barely bowl is a team composition that makes absolutely no sense to me.

Pant only has himself to blame by playing all those superlative innings. Team ko kandhe par chadhayega to team kaan mein mutegi na? (If you carry/place someone i.e. the Indian team on your shoulders, it's only natural that they'll eventually pee in your ears)

 

[TheJediBrah]

Having Pant as a top 5 batsman while keeping and then having 6-8 allrounders as your key batsman that barely bowl is a team composition that makes absolutely no sense to me. As SS said, it’s an indictment of your FC level of you can’t find proper middle order bats to bat in the top 6. India turning their knack of needing to rely on their lower middle order to make runs into a selection strategy is frustrating.

The problem isn't "relying" on #5-8 allrounders to make runs, the problem is why aren't the top 4 making more runs. Having all rounders down to 8 that bat as well as most top orders is a really, really good thing in a vacuum.

Leaving out one of your all-rounders that make more runs than a batsman just because they are all-rounders would be crazy

 

[Son Of Coco]

Love the typo here. "Havas" in Hindi means lusty/horny. Sunil Havaskar has a great ring to it

It was actually borrowed from The Twelfth Man, but I am happy to see it has a real meaning in Hindi.

 

[Sunil1z]

 

[Wanna_Be_AB]

View attachment 43901

You know a person who gives that kind of statement after losing isn't fit to lead a team.

 

[Window]

The problem isn't "relying" on #5-8 allrounders to make runs, the problem is why aren't the top 4 making more runs. Having all rounders down to 8 that bat as well as most top orders is a really, really good thing in a vacuum.

Leaving out one of your all-rounders that make more runs than a batsman just because they are all-rounders would be crazy

This is misconstruing what I said. The point is India keep stuffing batting allrounders down the order to make up for lack of runs from the top/middle order. That’s not a solution and has the knock-on impact of leaving limited support options for the bowling. But maybe this really is the best lot India have at the moment, and they’re trying to make do with it. It’s not something I see them bringing success in the long term.