*Official* Road to India in Australia 2011/12

[morgieb]

Now you lot see why we're all so pessimistic?

tbh, I'm only worried if Zaheer's fit. Our bowling should be able to get India out for less than mammoth scores, and the rest of their bowling is terrible. Quite a bit worse than the Kiwis.

 

[Jono]

Our bowling should be able to get India out for less than mammoth scores

Depends on what wickets you put out really.

You put out flat tracks and you play into India's hands.

But if you put out bowler friendly wickets Australia, weirdly, flash hard at anything outside off stump and are regularly dismissed for sub-150.

I'm sure Australia will recover by Boxing Day, but India's batsmen have come early to Australia. If they acclimatise well who knows what'll happen.

 

[Furball]

Nah, Australia throw their wickets away against any bowlers nowdays

But India's attack is seriously bad.

Coincidentally, Australia's last semi decent series with the bat came against Sri Lanka, another team who can't bowl.

 

[Spark]

While it'll be good to have Marsh back given he puts full value on his wicket, he's a bit of an LBW candidate, and there's Zaheer...

 

[weldone]

Reasons Rohit Sharma should play the First Test ahead of Virat Kohli

1. He has a 11 points better batting average in FC cricket (63 vs 52).
2. Virat Kohli hasn't yet set the world on fire in test cricket.
3. Rohit is the man in better form clearly, at least in the longer version.
4. He plays the short ball much better than Kohli.

The only thing Kohli has in his favor is his great record in ODIs, which shouldn't be much of a reason for test match selection IMO.

 

[Crazy Sam]

The new selectors will need to decide on what the way forward is and what they are trying to achieve with their selections. If they are building towards the next Ashes then Ponting has to go right now. Some people think he should be given the Indian series as some sort of testimonial series - I say he's been on a farewell tour for the last two years and has not pulled the pin so it's now up to the selectors to put him out of his misery. If he really wants to stay part of the team and help the younger ones then make him 12th man, reserve fielder.

If they don't care about building towards anything then Hughes must go.

Warner has to be ahead of Hughes and Khawaja now. Hughes and Khawaja are trying hard to tough it out but aren't scoring runs while doing so; compare this with Warner yesterday when he first went in and he was at least looking for quick runs and trying to keep the runs ticking over.

There are guys who are now putting together high scores consistently in Shield cricket (eg Christian, Forrest) and they can't do much worse than what we've seen in the past 2 months.

 

[Flem274*]

Watson
Warner
Marsh
Ponting/Khawaja
Clarke
Hussey
Haddin/Wade
Siddle
Harris
Pattinson
Lyon

Good side imo.

 

[Furball]

Watson
Warner
Marsh
Ponting/Khawaja
Clarke
Hussey
Haddin/Wade
Siddle
Harris
Pattinson
Lyon

Good side imo.

You cannot possibly drop Hughes whilst retaining one of Ponting or Khawaja. There is no logic to that whatsoever.

 

[Spark]

Official tour thread is up guys.

 

[Jono]

1. He has a 11 points better batting average in FC cricket (63 vs 52).
2. Virat Kohli hasn't yet set the world on fire in test cricket.
3. Rohit is the man in better form clearly, at least in the longer version.
4. He plays the short ball much better than Kohli.

The only thing Kohli has in his favor is his great record in ODIs, which shouldn't be much of a reason for test match selection IMO.

I bet you wouldn't say this if Rohit hadn't scored runs in the latest ODIs

I'm a Sharma fan, but you can't come out and say ODI records shouldnt be taken into consideration when its Sharma's ODI form which has made everyone say he should play.

Sharma has been epic in first class cricket for ages with not many people noticing. His ODI form is why people (other than Ian Chappell who have wanted him in the test team for ages) are raving.

If Sharma played I wouldn't mind. But let's not pretend his FC form is what is the reason why people are calling for him to play.

 

[Jono]

But India's attack is seriously bad.

Coincidentally, Australia's last semi decent series with the bat came against Sri Lanka, another team who can't bowl.

What was your prediction for NZ vs. Aust, considering what people thought of NZ's attack before this series.

Its moot anyway as I don't see Australia making bowling friendly pitches for a long time after Hobart.

 

[Spikey]

Ginger has long been against the status quo of the aus batting line-up so i reckon he'll gave them a chance, as long as 4 seamers played.

 

[Furball]

What was your prediction for NZ vs. Aust, considering what people thought of NZ's attack before this series.

Its moot anyway as I don't see Australia making bowling friendly pitches for a long time after Hobart.

I actually put money on New Zealand winning 1-0.

Although if I'm being honest, it's because I expected a green attack led by Siddle to struggle - I certainly didn't think New Zeala.d would bowl as well as they did.

 

[weldone]

I bet you wouldn't say this if Rohit hadn't scored runs in the latest ODIs

I'm a Sharma fan, but you can't come out and say ODI records shouldnt be taken into consideration when its Sharma's ODI form which has made everyone say he should play.

Sharma has been epic in first class cricket for ages with not many people noticing. His ODI form is why people (other than Ian Chappell who have wanted him in the test team for ages) are raving.

If Sharma played I wouldn't mind. But let's not pretend his FC form is what is the reason why people are calling for him to play.

Don't know about others, but I personally want him in the test team mainly for his FC performances.

Yes, he has been good in FC cricket for ages; but so has been Pujara, Rahane, Tiwary, Kohli and Badrinath. He was averaging in the mid-to-late 50s like others. But his FC form in the last year has been extraordinary.

 

[Jono]

Don't know about others, but I personally want him in the test team mainly for his FC performances.

Yes, he has been good in FC cricket for ages; but so has been Pujara, Rahane, Tiwary, Kohli and Badrinath. He was averaging in the mid-to-late 50s like others. But his FC form in the last year has been extraordinary.

Fair play then, because that's where he has been most impressive.

 

[morgieb]

Rohit's pretty gun at FC cricket, but so are many other blokes. He has to wait until the big 3 retire.

 

[Daemon]

Kohli had problems with the short ball in the WI, but the pitches in the WI were probably tougher to play on compared to what India will find in Australia. Edwards and Rampaul were also bowling really really well.

 

[ret]

Tipping Aussie to win it easily. Just a feeling the bowling will all go horribly wrong for India.

yep, ind bowling is struggling .... but it also has good prospects in Yadav and Ashwin. Who knows this could be the series where they could become stars? Like in the past Agarkar (adelaide), Irfan and Ishant have done well in Aus .... Zak is an experienced and Ishant is inconsistent but capable of coming up with a game changing spell

No need to say that the batsmen will have to bat well to insure we compete and if the bowling can pull a rabbit out of the hat in say 3 of the possible 8 innings, winning 2 tests is possible for Ind

 

[ret]

I'd still take set A.

CA vs Indians:

Bowling O M R W Econ   
 I Sharma 5.3 3 7 0 1.27   
  
 U Yadav 15 3 39 3 2.60   
  
[B] A Mithun 12 1 40 0 3.33 (1nb)  
  
 R Vinay Kumar 17 1 89 1 5.23 (1nb)  [/B]
  
 PP Ojha 25.3 5 149 2 5.84   
  
 V Kohli 3 0 10 0 3.33   
  
 RG Sharma 8 0 56 0 7.00

 

[morgieb]

Really?

No chance of us winning 4-0, I'll tell you that now.

orly?

And yes I was sorta pessimistic too...but still.