***Official*** India in Australia

[Anil]

let's see what impact captaincy has on his bowling...

 

[pup11]

Everything said and done it won't be easy for the inexperienced Indian bowling attack to effective on the Australian pitches, the Australian batting is looking as intimidating as it has ever looked and though they performed superbly as a batting unit against Sri Lanka but one shouldn't forget that likes of Hayden, Ponting didn't fire in that series and once they get going then the Indian bowlers would surely have tough time.

 

[Perm]

Gambhir is nowhere close to being a test standard opener IMO. Yes, I know what his first class average is, but like adharcric, I've seen him bat. He'd get murdered in Australia.

Yeah, he just doesn't look as though he could handle it in Test cricket. Jaffer/Karthik with the form batsman out of Chopra/Sehwag to be the backup. Also, you have to take Indian FC averages with a grain of salt. They have a very large amount of batsmen averaging over 50, and not many would be good at Test level.

 

[Perm]

And SL's attack > India's, easily.

At the moment we have it as follows;

Zaheer Khan>Chaminda Vaas
Anil Kumble<<Muttiah Muralitharan
RP Singh>Dilhara Fernando
Irfan Pathan/Harbhajan Singh/S Sreesanth/Munaf Patel>Farveez Maharoof


IMO.

 

[AKkAz]

Chopra's strike rate too low

 

[Perm]

I could swear I had the exact same Zaheer argument like two days ago. The guy is criminally underrated, I don't think he's the second coming or anything but if you just watched him bowl since his comeback instead of looking at his cricinfo page...

Averaged 24.54 since his return.

Admittedly it's only 6 Tests, but the signs are there.

 

[Perm]

Chopra's strike rate too low

And? If he scores runs then that's irrelevant.

 

[Prince EWS]

Chopra's strike rate too low

Test cricket: long.

 

[Mister Wright]

I think the most interesting part of the series will be that the MCG will be hosting the first test of the series. Will be interesting to see how an away team copes with Melbourne being the venue for the opening test. Brisbane has been such a straglehold for Australia, they can set up their dominance from there. Melbourne is usually the 2nd or 4th venue of a series, so will be interesting to see if being the 1st test has a different affect or at the very least feel to it, given that there'll be no baggage from the touring team (assuming tour matches don't go arse-up) on Boxing Day.

 

[Pratters]

Chopra's strike rate too low

If the opener can last the new ball a sufficient period of time to wear it to make it easier for the middle order batsmen, that is pretty good, particularly for a team like India. Usually India used to find itself 5/1, 10/2 abroad. Whenever the openers lasted (not a lot of times), you found India as a team scoring bigger totals. Given the lack of openers lasting historically, I have long supported the idea of Chopra opening. I remember adharcric mentioning to me a few months back who I would have open for India and I said Chopra showing how he wasn't doing poorly in FC cricket as well at the time.

Chopra domestically:

2006-07	(India)	10	16	3	650	188  	50.00 	2	3	14	 
2007	(England) 1	2	0	113	106  	56.50 	1	0	1	 
2007-08	(India)	5	7	2	424	239*	84.80 	2	0	7

However, right now, we have to go with Karthik and Jaffer obviously. Karthik has made runs and is a certainty for the series versus Pakistan as well though I am not convinced regarding him as opener (I love his attitude mind).

For Australia, I would have Jaffer-Chopra opening. There is no question in my mind. The only other I would have even considered would be trying Yuvraj opening if we want him, Laxman and Ganguly - all three in the team. That to my mind, Yuvraj and Jaffer, isn't a bad option. Yuvraj is a good player of pace, adds by forming the attack-defense, left-right combination. However, the biggest issue is lasting the new ball, particularly in Australia and I get the most confidence from Jaffer-Chopra about this. Obviously, if Karthik keeps making the runs, he wont be dropped and that is fair enough from a perspective. Right now, Karthik-Jaffer are dead certainties but 3 tests is a long time in Indian cricket and I wouldn't be surprised if either of the two doesn't open in the first test in Australia. I hope that man isn't Jaffer though.

 

[biased indian]

That said, there's also no way that Australia's batsmen can play as well as they did in the opening 2 Tests forever. So India could still bowl them out cheaper than SL managed to.

as far as i know no attack has done that for in the last 14 test...and if indian bowlers are able to do that then it is not becuse of any luck........it would be because they bowled well

 

[biased indian]

Eh?

Chaminda Vaas > Zaheer Khan, easily.

Laaasith Maaalinga > all of India's seamers

Farveez Maharoof and Dilhara Fernando = the-rest-of-the-brigade (Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Sreesanth, etc.) They're all decidedly average but have their odd moments.

And obviously Murali >>>>>>>>>> Kumble.

Can't see how India's attack comes close to SL's really. If SL couldn't trouble them, it's highly unlikely India's will.

That said, there's also no way that Australia's batsmen can play as well as they did in the opening 2 Tests forever. So India could still bowl them out cheaper than SL managed to.

Rich want to do a one week avatar challange ?????????????

Indian bowlers will take more wicktes in the first 2 test than what SL bowlers could do in 2 test that just concluded.........

 

[Pratters]

Rich want to do a one week avatar challange ?????????????

Indian bowlers will take more wicktes in the first 2 test than what SL bowlers could do in 2 test that just concluded.........

That said, there's also no way that Australia's batsmen can play as well as they did in the opening 2 Tests forever.

.

 

[biased indian]

^^ i thought i had seen that ..just have a look of my post above

 

[Pratters]

^^ i thought i had seen that ..just have a look of my post above

He wont accept this avatar challenge and this will be atleast one of his reasons.

 

[biased indian]

He wont accept this avatar challenge and this will be atleast one of his reasons.

i know..that why i made a tempting one by making it one week....he just loves his avatar

 

[Richard]

Not in Australia, Rich. Here, Kumble >>>>>>>>> Murali. Any comparison you can make, Kumble has done better, even on first innings wickets when pitches aren't the best for spin. His first tour wasn't great but his second was just outstanding on even flatter decks.

I do know that y'know. Why on Earth it is that Kumble has done so much better than Murali in Australia I'll never know (could be no more than coincidence) but if Kumble had faced the batting (and had to contend with the catching) Murali did in the just-concluded series there's no way he'd have a chance of doing better.

IMO.

 

[Richard]

He wont accept this avatar challenge and this will be atleast one of his reasons.

Yeah, would be plain madness on my part to do so TBH. No-one can go on losing so few wickets forever. It's amazing that they did it 2 Tests running - 3 is almost OOTQ.

 

[Richard]

I hate to break it to you Richard, but Chaminda Vaas doesn't have a patch on Zaheer Khan anymore. If they both retired now, we'd most certainly look back on their careers and say "Vaas was the superior bowler" but once we take into account Zaheer's recent rise from mediocrity and Vaas's decline into it, there's no doubt in my mind that Zaheer is the better bowler at the moment. I'm not just talking about form, either; it's been going on for too long in the case of both bowlers.

Vaas has descended into mediocrity before, though, loads of times. He always bounces back and I'm fully confident he can (whether he will is of course not certain) do so again this time.

 

[Richard]

I could swear I had the exact same Zaheer argument like two days ago. The guy is criminally underrated, I don't think he's the second coming or anything but if you just watched him bowl since his comeback instead of looking at his cricinfo page...

Do you really think I haven't watched him? He's better than he was, for sure, but Chaminda Vaas posseses (yes, possesses, not possessed) skills Zaheer never has and never will.

What's more, Zaheer has gone up and down more than once in his career so far and to presume this latest one will last all that long is presumptious in the extreme. It's very possible he'll go back to being mediocrity personnified again sometime soon.