***Official*** India in Australia

[JBH001]

An embarrasing day for Aussie cricket, but justice is served I guess.
While everyone shakes their head in disgust at the injustice of cricket’s day of shame,
Singh was able to get off a racial abuse charge, while the integrity of Symonds' original evidence and that of referee Proctor were questioned.

To me, the most interesting point to come out of yesterdays court drama was that India contribute 75 per cent of the ICC’s revenues... This is India at its most powerful. This is India wielding total control.

Oh well, good on them if they do.

Looking forward to the CBI series though, should be great if the Lankans can step up and compete.

 

[Laurrz]

My team for Friday's 20/20 -

Gilchrist
Clarke
Ponting
Hussey M
Symonds
Hussey D
Hodge
Noffke
Lee
Bracken
Hilfenhaus

cant say i disagree

but its a great squad.. would be happy if anyone played

 

[Son Of Coco]

Anyone going to the one-dayer on Sunday? I allowed myself to get sucked in when Gilly retired from test cricket Want to see him go nuts on Sunday...

 

[Hoggy31]

http://news.smh.com.au/moody-urges-australia-to-stick-with-hogg/20080129-1otw.html

Good article.

 

[honestbharani]

gr8 series.


India definitely did much better than I ever expected, given the fact that but for the umpiring, they would have basically drawn this series 1-1.


Great to see Ishant coming through like he has but we have to make sure he stays fit. RPS going out was a very bad thing for us, hope he can come back just as strong as he has been recently. Same with Zak. Bhajji's bowling has looked a bit toothless which is quite worrying... But his batting has been very good. Sehwag coming back is a great bonus, and Dhoni continues to struggle outside the subcontinent. And we are still not nearer to finding the second opener... DK could have been tried at some point during the series, I felt.

Still, great result for India and let us see if we can continue to grow as a team and reach the pinnacle at some point in the near future...

 

[silentstriker]

Jaffer has no clue in Australian conditions, but with a full year of home Tests coming up, I'd open with Jaffer and Sehwag. But I'm open to other ideas, especially that of Aakash Chopra.

1. Jaffer
2. Sehwag
3. Dravid
4. Tendulkar
5. Laxman
6. Ganguly
7. Dhoni
8. Kumble
9. Zaheer
10. RP Singh
11. Ishant/Sreesanth

We can't have RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan in the same team - too many left arm seamers.

 

[Jono]

We can't have RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan in the same team - too many left arm seamers.

Explain to me how you can have too many left-arm seamers, but not too many right-arm seamers?

 

[LongHopCassidy]

We can't have RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan in the same team - too many left arm seamers.

You reckon? Personally I wouldn't be worried with three right-arm bowlers, so what's the issue with vice-versa?

Edit: Gazumped. Bloody Jono!

 

[silentstriker]

Explain to me how you can have too many left-arm seamers, but not too many right-arm seamers?

You reckon? Personally I wouldn't be worried with three right-arm bowlers, so what's the issue with vice-versa?

Edit: Gazumped. Bloody Jono!

Because they are all the same type of bowler. Left arm medium pace swing bowlers. You can't have three right arm medium pace swing bowlers either. An ideal combo if you have all left or right armers is you'll have one medium pace swing bowler (Hoggard), one back of length bowler (McGrath/Pollock) and one express (Lee/Akhtar).

Three right arm medium pace swing bowlers would also be a bad idea. That was our problem in Pakistan a couple years back - too much sameness made it easy to get used to.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Because they are all the same type of bowler. Left arm medium pace swing bowlers. You can't have three right arm medium pace swing bowlers either. An ideal combo if you have all left or right armers is you'll have one medium pace swing bowler (Hoggard), one back of length bowler (McGrath/Pollock) and one express (Lee/Akhtar).

Three right arm medium pace swing bowlers would also be a bad idea.

I don't see the issue, though, if they've all got individual quirks - which I'm led to believe they do. Pathan's slightly slower and hoopier, Zaheer's got a shade more zip and RP seems to extract the most conventional swing for my money- though what they do with a white ball in Australian conditions is beyond conjecture for me.

Regardless, South Africa coped from 1995 to 2007 with a monotonous attack of four right-arm seamers (without the redeeming luxury of a quality spinner or two, which India have in spades) or three right-arm seamers and a dross spinner, and they haven't disgraced themselves.

 

[Jono]

Because they are all the same type of bowler. Left arm medium pace swing bowlers. You can't have three right arm medium pace swing bowlers either. An ideal combo if you have all left or right armers is you'll have one medium pace swing bowler (Hoggard), one back of length bowler (McGrath/Pollock) and one express (Lee/Akhtar).

Three right arm medium pace swing bowlers would also be a bad idea. That was our problem in Pakistan a couple years back - too much sameness made it easy to get used to.

Then don't use the term 'left arm seamers' as justification then. Seamers I assumed meaning seam up bowlers, of whatever pace and variety.

Now you're talking differences in speed, swing and pace etc. Its a totally different issue.

 

[silentstriker]

Then don't use the term 'left arm seamers' as justification then. Seamers I assumed meaning seam up bowlers, of whatever pace and variety.

Now you're talking differences in speed, swing and pace etc. Its a totally different issue.

Fair enough - I should have been specific. But since we don't exactly have any express bowlers, or the back of length bowlers (except perhaps Ishant one day), I thought I didn't need to.

 

[jeevan]

Fair enough - I should have been specific. But since we don't exactly have any express bowlers, or the back of length bowlers (except perhaps Ishant one day), I thought I didn't need to.

Also helps your case that the alternatives - Ishant and Sreesanth are not majorly worse (or better) than Pathan or perhaps even RP.

 

[Burgey]

If all those guys are fit and firing (assuming Zaheer, RP, Munaf - all of them) who do you guys reckon would miss out?

I haven't seen much of Patel, but from what I've read on here the guys seem to rate him pretty highly. I would have thought Zaheer would be a given, but with what Sharma did here and the way RP came on, what about the others?

 

[Top_Cat]

If all those guys are fit and firing (assuming Zaheer, RP, Munaf - all of them) who do you guys reckon would miss out?

I haven't seen much of Patel, but from what I've read on here the guys seem to rate him pretty highly. I would have thought Zaheer would be a given, but with what Sharma did here and the way RP came on, what about the others?

Go with the winning/form combination I reckon. Munaf, and Sreesanth will have to wait their turns because the Ishant/RP/Pathan nexus is doing the job. Zaheer should come back into the side when fit and he'll probably take Ishant's spot which sucks but he's very young and will get another spot no doubt. But yeah, dropping any of that combination for Sree/Munaf just because they say they're bowling well/going to rip the heads off the Aussies would be silly. Pick the guys then back them, especially since they're bowling so well as a unit right now.

 

[Smudge]

just a question, but do New Zealand have any fast bowlers left?
what are they gonna do without Bond, and Oram getting on a bit now, whats their next move open with medium pacers? lol it will be a flashback to the 1860's
any kiwi fans who can let us know who the next to come on the scene will be, please inlighten us, coz if your all worried about an old broken down horse like Bond you have serious issues. if he was an aussie he would have been shot and sent out to the glue factory years ago....! let the indians waste money on a liability.

good luck black caps

Who the **** is this guy? **** off and troll somewhere else.

 

[silentstriker]

Go with the winning/form combination I reckon. Munaf, and Sreesanth will have to wait their turns because the Ishant/RP/Pathan nexus is doing the job. Zaheer should come back into the side when fit and he'll probably take Ishant's spot which sucks but he's very young and will get another spot no doubt. But yeah, dropping any of that combination for Sree/Munaf just because they say they're bowling well/going to rip the heads off the Aussies would be silly. Pick the guys then back them, especially since they're bowling so well as a unit right now.

It's a bad idea IMO to play all all three of RP, Zaheer and Pathan. I'd drop Pathan, even though he has been excellent with the new ball. I would put Ishant, Munaf or Sreesanth in that place. For once, we have four seamers of similar quality who could all potentially fill in.

 

[silentstriker]

Regardless, South Africa coped from 1995 to 2007 with a monotonous attack of four right-arm seamers (without the redeeming luxury of a quality spinner or two, which India have in spades) or three right-arm seamers and a dross spinner, and they haven't disgraced themselves.

But as I said, Donald was a different bowler, and so was Pollock. So there was some definite variety there - more so than in the Indian set. Plus, obviously the sheer class of both Donald and Pollock was quite high, so even if their styles were the same (which they weren't), they might still have been effective.

 

[Top_Cat]

It's a bad idea IMO to play all all three of RP, Zaheer and Pathan. I'd drop Pathan, even though he has been excellent with the new ball. I would put Ishant, Munaf or Sreesanth in that place. For once, we have four seamers of similar quality who could all potentially fill in.

Tough call. Good problem for the Indian selectors to have, though. Mind you, we're supposed to believe that Pathan can open the batting now so why not pick him as such and then you can fit in Zaheer, RP and Ishant. imagine that; an Indian pace battery!

Geez, if this attack clicks, they'll be tough to beat anywhere I reckon. The selectors seem to have a hard-on for the enforcer type though which is silly when you have guys quietly doing the job, RP especially. He'll be top-5 in the world rankings within 2 years.

 

[silentstriker]

Tough call. Good problem for the Indian selectors to have, though. Mind you, we're supposed to believe that Pathan can open the batting now so why not pick him as such and then you can fit in Zaheer, RP and Ishant. imagine that; an Indian pace battery!

Geez, if this attack clicks, they'll be tough to beat anywhere I reckon. The selectors seem to have a hard-on for the enforcer type though which is silly when you have guys quietly doing the job, RP especially. He'll be top-5 in the world rankings within 2 years.

Tough call. Zaheer IMO is a much better bowler than RP atm. And I don't see Zaheer cracking top five, considering where he has to bowl for the next year.