**Official** Australia in India Thread

[Richard]

No Lehmann.

If anyone tries to tell me that Either of Hodge, Katich or Clarke are better than Lehmann you can wrap me up in pita bread and call me a kebab!

If anyone tries to tell me that any Australian except Ponting is a better batsman than Lehmann then you can eat my computer!

 

[Richard]

I wonder what would have happened if that were Australia playing Australia A?

I doubt a similar thing would have happened - but that would have meant the Australians made the error.
It would have been all bad and no good for India had the A-team won that inconsequential match.

 

[Richard]

Not over the Ashes and Test series between Pakistan and India?

Which have been a one-sided farce and a non-existant pipedream over the last 15 years.

 

[Richard]

im sure this is what i'll look like

Hayden
Langer
Hodge
Martyn
Katich
Clarke
Gilchrist
Warne
Gillespie
Kasprowicz
McGrath

I'm more than sure - I'll tell you beyond question that it will not look like that!
We will not see this:
Hayden
Langer
We always (except in their maiden opening-stand) see this:
Langer
Hayden
Sorry to be picky and pedantic, but I really struggle to believe people can get opening-combos of such length wrong - ever.

 

[Richard]

First Test pitch 'terrible': Buchanan

About time India saw sense and prepared some proper Indian pitches!
Their best chance is to prepare four dustbowls.

 

[aussie_beater]

Looks like the pitch for the first test is all set to be an Indian slow turner with quite a bit of uneven bounce where the ball may skid. Also going by reports, it may start to act very funny from day 4 onwards as there are cracks showing up, which is Kumble's recipe for batting doomsday. I hope its not going to behave as wicked as the Bangalore pitch of the 1987 test between India and Pak because it may not turn as viciously. India may play Murali Karthik in addition to Kumble and Harbhajan.

 

[telsor]

About time India saw sense and prepared some proper Indian pitches!
Their best chance is to prepare four dustbowls.

Why, don't they believe they're good enough to beat Aus on a decent pitch?

 

[Richard]

No, they just believe that home advantage is there to be just that - home advantage!
And personally I'd much rather see a raging turner than a "decent" pitch - I'm getting wholly sick of every single Test-match (near enough) Worldwide being played on "decent" pitches (hereafter referred to as "pitches encouraging totally one-dimensional cricket").

 

[Jono]

Why, don't they believe they're good enough to beat Aus on a decent pitch?

Decent pitch? Yeah it's fun seeing two teams score almost 600 and bowlers have figures of 2-150. How about a bit of variety. If you come to the subcontinent, expect to play on a different pitch.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

No, they just believe that home advantage is there to be just that - home advantage!
And personally I'd much rather see a raging turner than a "decent" pitch - I'm getting wholly sick of every single Test-match (near enough) Worldwide being played on "decent" pitches (hereafter referred to as "pitches encouraging totally one-dimensional cricket").

Why? "decent" is much easier to type, surely?

I don't think it'll help them in the long run preparing those kinds of pitches though - it's only in recent years that they have managed to win away (heck, they didn't win an away Test for 15 years...), and that has coincided with a complete flattening-out of the wickets (and a new captain, too). All their great spinners - Bedi, Chandrasekhar et al - had great averages in India, and awful averages where it didn't turn.

(of course, dried-up wickets help nobody, so I dunno...artificial rain?

 

[Jono]

So where's the thrill of touring India at all if the pitches are going to be the same as everywhere else? If every pitch becomes globalised to have on standard we're going to see batting take over even more, and some boring one-dimensional cricket will occur.

 

[Richard]

I don't think it'll help them in the long run preparing those kinds of pitches though - it's only in recent years that they have managed to win away (heck, they didn't win an away Test for 15 years...), and that has coincided with a complete flattening-out of the wickets (and a new captain, too). All their great spinners - Bedi, Chandrasekhar et al - had great averages in India, and awful averages where it didn't turn.

Every team is supposed to be stronger at home - whilst India have managed to win the odd outside-subconinent Test in the last 2 years, they've also looked distincly more vulnerable at home than they had in the 70s, 80s and much of the 90s (except when South Africa stormed the fortress).
IMO they're always going to find some form away from the subcontinent as long as they're producing players like they are ATM - so they need to avoid compromising their home strength.
And have you thought about the fact that their successes have come more regularly because of the fact that Worldwide pitches are becoming more and more archetypal? Stuff in India is much more akin to stuff in England, whereas even in 1996 they were totally incomparable. In India 2001\02 one of the Tests was played in conditions that no-one could possibly have picked from Old Trafford, and neither of the other two helped spinners as much as was the case in 1992\93. Only one Test-pitch even came close to being spin-friendly.

(of course, dried-up wickets help nobody, so I dunno...artificial rain?

Yep - it's called watering the pitch.

 

[aussie_beater]

Actually the pitches in India when the Aussies toured last time around in 2001 were not big vicious turners or really spin-friendly at all. If anyone calls these pitches as turners, then you have no idea what a real turner looks like. The Aussie batsman failed to adjust to the general slowness and low bounce of the wickets which was there main undoing....actually they did quite well except in the 2nd innings at Calcutta and Chennai. Its the same as Indian batsman failing to adjust to the more bounce and fastness of the wickets in Aus and elsewhere.

 

[tooextracool]

captaincy, wicketkeeping and one-drop! isn't that a really heavy work load??

so youd rather have him coming down the order and failing as is customary for him to against quality spinners then?
just looking at his averages against india in the last couple of series and against SL bar the one innings where he batted at 3 and got 140 odd, those are extremely poor averages.

 

[tooextracool]

No he's not. His whole FC career has been at number 3 - he's certainly up to the job, and infact I think he will thrive.

from what ive seen off katich he seems better off starting against spin than against pace. hes done well at 6 in his career thus far, and gilchrist would be better off at 3, its in the interest of the team.

 

[tooextracool]

I don't think it'll help them in the long run preparing those kinds of pitches though - it's only in recent years that they have managed to win away (heck, they didn't win an away Test for 15 years...), and that has coincided with a complete flattening-out of the wickets (and a new captain, too). All their great spinners - Bedi, Chandrasekhar et al - had great averages in India, and awful averages where it didn't turn.

and thats where varying the kind of pitches in domestic cricket comes in handy....

 

[marc71178]

Not both of them. And not in the top 6, but 7 and 8. They should just see off McGrath and Gillespie, but attack the other bowlers.

And what in their past career says that they'd be good enough to do that?

If either of them are batting at 7 then I would put this series as 4-0 Australia

 

[tooextracool]

Not both of them. And not in the top 6, but 7 and 8. They should just see off McGrath and Gillespie, but attack the other bowlers.

because kaspa is completely useless?on current form, hes better than both gillespie and mcgrath.

 

[Tony Blade]

because kaspa is completely useless?on current form, hes better than both gillespie and mcgrath.

And then of course theres Warne

 

[viktor]

so youd rather have him coming down the order and failing as is customary for him to against quality spinners then?

since i support india, thats not an entirely unfavourable scenario AFAIC
but granted that he fails more when he's batting down the order, would u rather he bat at three get a few runs ( which some one like Katich can) and then drop a crucial catch or miss a stumping becos he is tired and not focussed?