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**Official** 5th Test at Sydney, 3-7 Jan 2025
- Thread starter Spark
- Start date
starc back injury. hopefully they drop marsh as well, as the team balance would be gone
indianexpress.com
Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Injured Mitchell Starc skips nets, Mitch Marsh’s spot for Sydney Test under scanner
After beating India in Melbourne to go 2-1 up in the series, Australia reached Sydney on Tuesday and had a training session on Wednesday, where Starc did not bowl in the nets.
indianexpress.com
If i was a non political bold selector, here would be my XI for this SCG test
Changes-
India- Rohit and Kohli & Pant & Washi dropped. Rohit is averaging single digit. Kohli, apart from the 100 in perth, has been woeful. Pant, has not been up to his usual standards post injury. Washi is not suited to the SCG pitch, which does not turn this year.
KL back to opener. Bumrah captain.
In: Devdutt, Sarfaraz, Jurel & Prasidh
Australia- Starc sent for scans, so he will ruled out injured. Jhye in. Because of this, Mitch marsh gets dropped for the in form Beau Webster.
XIs
India
KL Rahul
Jaiswal
Devdutt
Sarfaraz
Jurel (W/K)
Jadeja (all rounder)
Reddy
Prasidh
Deep
Siraj
Bumrah(C)
Aus
Konstas
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Head
Carey (W/K)
Beau Webster (all rounder)
Cummins (c)
Jhye
Lyon
Boland.
Changes-
India- Rohit and Kohli & Pant & Washi dropped. Rohit is averaging single digit. Kohli, apart from the 100 in perth, has been woeful. Pant, has not been up to his usual standards post injury. Washi is not suited to the SCG pitch, which does not turn this year.
KL back to opener. Bumrah captain.
In: Devdutt, Sarfaraz, Jurel & Prasidh
Australia- Starc sent for scans, so he will ruled out injured. Jhye in. Because of this, Mitch marsh gets dropped for the in form Beau Webster.
XIs
India
KL Rahul
Jaiswal
Devdutt
Sarfaraz
Jurel (W/K)
Jadeja (all rounder)
Reddy
Prasidh
Deep
Siraj
Bumrah(C)
Aus
Konstas
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Head
Carey (W/K)
Beau Webster (all rounder)
Cummins (c)
Jhye
Lyon
Boland.
TimAngas
State Vice-Captain
Compared to the last two tours by India it has clearly felt as though the cricket has been much less attritional. It's borne out by stats too. In 2018-19 the batting SR was 44.1 and in 2020-21 it was 46.2. This time around it's 52.4. Still much slower than the 2014-15 run-fest when runs were scored at 59.5. Something to consider when discussing fatigue of Starc and Cummins going into the last test: Australia have only been in the field 80% as long as in 2018-19 after four tests.
It's great fun to have sudden momentum swings brought on by a sparkling bit of brilliance from Head or Bumrah, but there was something different about the feeling of breaking through Pujara or Rahane's defence after a session of banging away on a good length that this series hasn't quite captured. Not to say this series hasn't been equally enjoyable, but everything has always felt on a knife edge as opposed to the being the product of dogged determination from the two sides.
It's great fun to have sudden momentum swings brought on by a sparkling bit of brilliance from Head or Bumrah, but there was something different about the feeling of breaking through Pujara or Rahane's defence after a session of banging away on a good length that this series hasn't quite captured. Not to say this series hasn't been equally enjoyable, but everything has always felt on a knife edge as opposed to the being the product of dogged determination from the two sides.
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
Apparently Gambhir pushed for Pujaras inclusion in the squad but was denied.
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
Strife, if true, is not necessarily bad. Hopefully it results in some motivation.
Spark
Global Moderator
Much poorer quality defensive batting especially on India's side the most obvious difference (those two absence in particular being the main reason why - Aus defensive batting wasn't exactly crash hot in those previous two series either) but the pitches have also been much more "result pitches" than the ones we saw in the back half of the last few series. India's bowling outside of Bumrah has also been quite a bit looser which has allowed batsmen like Head etc to really get away in a manner that no one was able to do in the previous series. The absence of Ashwin in particular has been a big big difference in this regard.
Wanna_Be_AB
U19 12th Man
seems pretty tough on sundar considering his performance at mcg
Arachnödouche2.0
U19 Debutant
yeah, looks like Gambhir's read the team quite the riot act post-MCG too. Good on him; either he resigns in disgust or gets to run the team he wants.
Gnske
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The horrible, horrible truth is that Rishabh Pant is a walking meme with occasional flashes of brilliance.
If Gambhir has any cricket brain he'll have told Pant by now that taking no responsibility and just rolling the dice isn't good enough someone who is now at risk of becoming very senior in the batting unit after this series / WTC cycle. Especially with Rahul's test spot being barely tenable even at his best.
No point giving Kohli crap for going fishing, it's been a career long technical fault and he's not getting rid of it aged 48. Nor will he ever get dumped by force, the sponsorships by god. And giving Rohit crap would be like giving Louis Slotin a serve on his death bed after being mortally irradiated. Seriously no point.
If Gambhir has any cricket brain he'll have told Pant by now that taking no responsibility and just rolling the dice isn't good enough someone who is now at risk of becoming very senior in the batting unit after this series / WTC cycle. Especially with Rahul's test spot being barely tenable even at his best.
No point giving Kohli crap for going fishing, it's been a career long technical fault and he's not getting rid of it aged 48. Nor will he ever get dumped by force, the sponsorships by god. And giving Rohit crap would be like giving Louis Slotin a serve on his death bed after being mortally irradiated. Seriously no point.
Niall
International Coach
He batted very naively in the 2nd innings, yeah he blocked well but he made very little attempt to protect the rabbits from strike. His bowling is a bit meh also tbh.
The_CricketUmpire
State 12th Man
‘I’ve had enough’: Explosive claims of Indian dressing room blow-up, fractures in camp
‘I’ve had enough’: Explosive claims of Indian dressing room blow-up, fractures in camp
www.foxsports.com.au
govinda indian fan
State Vice-Captain
We have fast bowler called kuldeep sen who is quick skiddy just like shami. Could have been perfect foil for bumrah but our dumb team management and selecters would rather select crap like khaleel over geniune talents like sen
govinda indian fan
State Vice-Captain
He batted very naively in the 2nd innings, yeah he blocked well but he made very little attempt to protect the rabbits from strike. His bowling is a bit meh also tbh.
[/QUOTE think sundar gave up after jaiswal got outgood bat but needs to improve his bowling
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
There needs to be a cultural change in Indian cricket, especially regarding the superstar batsmen. The spot in the team doesn't belong to the player - it's the spot owned by the country and they have the privilege of occupying it for as long as they are the best person for the job. The moment that is not the case, the spot is gone. No farewell Test, no farewell series, no right to decide when to retire. The moment you think another batter is likely to score one more run (or take one more wicket) than the incumbent - that's it. If the player wants to keep going, Ranji trophy is this way, and you can come back into the team if you score runs (I also think we discard players too quickly permanently; I don't have any issue with picking guys again who were dropped if they show their form again and fix whatever problems they were having).
You can have a nice dinner and reception for them, or whatever else you want. India (and many other countries) have a tendency to indulge players for far too long. And I don't mean situations where you're giving them a shot because you think they're about to come back to form - this is when everyone in the world knows it's over, but they keep playing.
You can have a nice dinner and reception for them, or whatever else you want. India (and many other countries) have a tendency to indulge players for far too long. And I don't mean situations where you're giving them a shot because you think they're about to come back to form - this is when everyone in the world knows it's over, but they keep playing.
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smellcricketintheair
School Boy/Girl Captain
As spectators and media, we need to stop glorifying players for their behavior, kindness, or off-field image and start respecting them for their current skill, consistency, and impact on the field. merit over nostalgia should be the mantra
Well you could say that, but Rohit was quite clearly cooked before Melbourne, at 6 no less, then Gambhir was obviously at the forefront of bringing him back to open. No surprises for how that ended up. He knocked the absolute stuffing out of their 4th innings at the G. I'm not saying they were ever going to chase it (they weren't) but his team mates watched him labour through to the 16th over and score 9, whilst simultaneously allowing the Australians to get nice, settled and aggressive. It was worse than had he nicked out for 0.
So yeah, I read the same articles you did and fair enough...but Gambhir presided over that awful NZ tour where his team played with absolute abandon and lack of give a ****, and now he's let his captain get away on him - not only with the bat, but my god I can't remember a worse on-field captain than Rohit with his awful body language, reactive captaincy and default to defensiveness. So it's almost a bit late now for Gambhir at 1-2 down in the BGT and just having lost 0-3 at home, although I do realise if they win in Sydney they retain it.
More than occasional, but I agree in a way. I heard Hussey strenuously defending him for that god awful shot in the first dig, whilst Waugh (rightly, to my view) said get off the grass, in no way is 'that's how he plays' a mitigating factor for being caught playing a shot you could have got out to a number of ways. He's too talented for that. It seems like a lazy mindset, 'that's how I play' when the best players find a way to stay aggressive but do it within a plan.
100% agree with this, although it won't change. Name a sport around the world, a high profile one, and most of the power belongs to the players. The All Blacks in rugby being a notable exception. I'm not sure if it exists in American sport.
The only way you change is if you get god-like people in positions of power, and they won't put up with it.
We've seen it in NZ for decades, from the Cairns/Parore days to Vettori running the ship and ousting coaches to do it himself and bring his mates along, to Tim Southee deciding his own retirement date.
