India in Australia, 2018-2019

[prasen9]

Ashwin played 94 balls in his two innings.

Cummins played 168 balls. #9 Starc played 78 balls. #10 Lyon 75 balls without being out once.

So, it is not that Ashwin did something extra-ordinary.

Yes, in a close match, every run matters and every wicket matters. So, he did play an important role. But, if you have to applaud him, applaud him for his four wickets. Today, he played the role as a defensive bowler and hardly took wickets, hardly looked menacing whereas Lyon played havoc on the Indian bats. And, no, our bats are not worse players of spin.

And, yes, compared to his horrible standards outside India, he did well in this match.

Shami took 5 wickets in the match at less than 25 runs/wicket. It would be unfair to drop him.

Let's see the pitch report at Perth. I am really concerned by a Ishant-Shami-Bumrah tail. I would go with a Bhuvi-Shami-Bumrah one.

[ssp]

That was a closer finish than it should have been. We really could have done with another 20+ runs from our tail in our 2nd inns.

Glad we won despite our usual lower order collapses, wickets off no balls, inability to remove the opposition tail and idiotic selections.

Just drop Ishant and Rohit at least for the 2nd test. Jadeja for Ashwin would be a good swap too.

[SaniaFan]

Statistically Ishant has not done bad in last 3 years. Why is everyone still after him? His average this year before last match was 21. Last 3 years it is like 25. Are others doing better than him?

[Atithee]

Ashwin played 94 balls in his two innings.

Cummins played 168 balls. #9 Starc played 78 balls. #10 Lyon 75 balls without being out once.

So, it is not that Ashwin did something extra-ordinary.

Not sure why you keep comparing Ashwin to the Aussie bowlers. I’m the first one to lament about their rich batting pedigree than our poor one. Anyway, let’s move on. Shastri uttered some crap on Sony TV that wasn’t covered as part of the CA broadcast that was available worldwide, I think. You can entertain yourself on cricinfo commentary.

[prasen9]

Ishant averages 27.08 in the last 3 years.

Shami averages 26.26, Bhuvi 18.5, Umesh 30.2, Bumrah 24.44.

Why should we select Ishant over Shami, Bhuvi, and Bumrah?

If Perth is a fast bowler's paradise as it is being made out to be, we should drop Ashwin and get Bhuvi in. Drop Rohit and get Vihari in. I suspect India will go unchanged though.

[Atithee]

And with his indiscipline in cutting out no balls as well as not paying any attention to his batting, Ishant needs to be sent a clear message. Plus, although he may not have been called in this match, he still tends to run into danger zone on the pitch during his follow up. These are simply unacceptable.

[prasen9]

If you read Kohli's comments, he says that Ishant is himself quite upset and is working on it. He says that they are not schoolboys and so don't need to be told anything. This is why they had issues with Kumble. Shastri, in the meantime, said to-the-hell with practice. I understand the need for rest. But, the folks who are not in the team must have practice everyday. And, each batsman should be given a routine. Even on "off" days, you can do yoga, strengthening exercises for certain weak parts/injured parts, etc. I hope they are doing so. An hour of targeted practice for each batsman with a thrower or a ball-machine, etc. will not make their recovery any worse.

It is a shame that our bowlers are not told to bat when the rest of the world has evolved. The bowlers need rest but on these rest days, they should get batting practice. Batting practice will not hamper their recovery because they are not running but doing technique work. Oh, well!

[Sin Hombre]

Agree prasen that India will go unchanged.

If Perth is indeed a 3-4 day pitch with both teams being bundled out for 200, I would go with those changes (Shaw for Vijay if fit, Vihari for Rohit and Bhuvi for Ashwin). That will mean 4 fast bowlers + a decent spin option in Vihari.

One thing I will say positively about Ashwin is that Kohli uses him a lot to exert "control" over the match by choking one end. His marathon spell yesterday while unthreatening was tight and never let any partnership get easy runs.

[prasen9]

That is true. It was a bizarrely conservative tactics but it seems to have worked! The idea that there is a 95% probability of win if we can keep the runs down was perhaps borne out of some analysis that said that the chances of the other team playing over 120 overs was very low. So, if you keep the runs down, then you win. Kohli stuck to his script. All's well that ends well.

[Sin Hombre]

Watching the extended highlights, it feels like the entire Indian team got a bit overexcited when Marsh came on and Cummins came in thinking the tail would just roll over at that point.

Of course, Cummins was given out for 0 which was overturned on review (strange decision given the onfield umpire said out and there was a clear murmur in snicko).


Pant's drops
Paine legside off glove --> very strange that he went with his right instead of left
Lyon --> bad initial foot movement

I think both drops are fixable with experience.

[prasen9]

Two of our record catches by keeper: Pant 11 and Saha 10 were this year (or may be last for Saha). That shows that our pace bowling has some teeth now with Bumrah's arrival.

[ssp]

Bumrah has made a huge difference to our pace attack. Just hope he stays fit for years to come and his workload is managed sensibly by the team management.

[prasen9]

One of his balls reached 151kph! I would not bring him into the T20I team except maybe for a World Cup or something like that. For ODIs, I will pick and choose. He also does not play any tests against the minnows, i.e., all teams at home + SANE countries abroad. The Aussies want a fast pitch at Perth like before. I would love to see a four pronged attack bringing in Bhuvi roll them over and bat with attrition to eke out a win.

[Prashant]

So both Rohit & Ashwin are ruled out due to injury. Indications seem to be Vihari for Rohit, and one of Bhuvi/Umesh/Jadeja for Ashwin, depending on the pitch. This appears to be a different ground than the WACA, not sure if it plays the same way.

[Atithee]

Are they really injured or is it one of those convenient injuries that miraculously appears in the Indian cricket team when a big name needs to be sat down?