India in Australia, 2014-2015

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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by PKBasu »

There is NO India test series for the next one year according to the Cricinfo international schedule. What an absolute disgrace the BCCI is! They will scramble to put a series or two together at the last minute.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

gbelday wrote:
prasen9 wrote:We should give Rahul a fair run. He has been a failure in these two tests but has also shown some promise.
How can you consider him as a failure in the second test? Didn't he get a century?
I do not think he failed in the second test. I think he failed to deliver in two tests taken together. We have enough dadas who play one innings and think that they have done enough. Vijay used to be like that. Ishant and Zaheer used to be like that. Vijay is more consistent now, and Ishant, is more consistent in that he never gets it done now, one test in the last year notwithstanding. A century does not matter to me. It is simply one run more than 99 and one less than 101. Total runs matter. A batsman who scores 0,0,100,0 is a failure in my mind. Of course, I am reducing the case to the worst possible scenario here. Anyway, my point is that I would give all of Rahul, Rohit, and Saha 10 tests and if they have done somewhat well in those then they earn more. If I were the coach, I would tell Rahul that what he has done is not enough and there is a lot of scope to improve. The way he has got out in three out of four innings does not befit an opening batsman. He needs to pay more attention to shot selection and be more consistent. I do not want to tell mediocre people that they have succeeded.
If we are looking at numbers to decide who gets in, then lets just look at the numbers and nothing else (like playing style, number of close misses etc).
Which would be a fairer, better, more accurate system than what we have now. I believe that if we have a numbers-based system that would be more accurate than people trying to discern who will succeed using all sorts of subjective criteria. The selectors are a bunch of jokers
He is a big reason for us not losing the second test.
Of course, he is. But that is his job. We should expect that. Again, I did not say that he failed in the second test. But, given his abysmal failure in the first test, and the second innings of the second test, he has to do more to make up.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

PKB, we play Bangladesh in June, Sri Lanka in August, South Africa in Oct/Nov all at home, and then Pakistan away. None of these tours have been finalized in the sense the exact dates have not been set. So, I suppose you do not see it in the calendar. Please see: Calendar
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

PKBasu wrote:I think Saha has failed to grab his chances, especially with the bat. He played the "right" way against spin, but got LBW to a ball that kept low. The latter was unfortunate, but he should have still kept it out. I cannot easily forgive him for the atrocious way he got out in Adelaide.
Yes, Saha has failed to grab his chances, but, he has not been given a full series. Let us give him 5-6 more tests and then decide.
To me only Kohli, Vijay and Rahane among the batsmen, and Ashwin and Bhuvi as all-rounders, are certain starters for the next overseas series (and probably for a home test series too).
Ashwin is too weak a bowler to be a #8 (specialist bowler). He has to be a #7 abroad. In India, he can be #8.
I would give Rahul another test or two, and perhaps one more test to Rohit.
Every player who has come through the system deserves 10 tests. I would give all of Rahul, Rohit, and Saha to cement their places in the team.
Pujara needs to go back to the back of the queue after failing in two consecutive overseas series.
Agreed.
The pace bowlers need to be changed, with the possible exception of Ishant and possibly Shami (although the latter cannot be a certainty in the XI until he develops a more consistent stock ball like Hazlewood and McGrath). Going for raw pace is useless if they have no control over line and length. The ones who succeed in domestic cricket -- like Pankaj Singh -- should not be so easily set aside. I would also look to someone like Shreyas Gopal -- if Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra are really not going to be considered again (although I don't see any reason to neglect them).
There is absolutely no reason to retain Ishant if we are going to drop the other youngsters. Kumar, Shami, and Umesh have all failed as bowlers but they have done so in 12 tests; there is a small chance that one of them can learn and emerge a la Vijay. However, with Ishant, he has played what 60 tests? There is scant chance that he can improve. He should be dropped first. Kumar, perhaps, clings on because of his batting prowess. I would be fine going with Aaron and Pankaj --- to give them a fair run. Wrt spin, Mishra should not be considered for tests, but, I would give Chawla a fair run.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

In this tri-series, I would try out as many of our bowlers as we can. So, I would play Axar, Binny, Kulkarni, Shami, and Ishant/Bhuvi. The last slot to enable these senior bowlers to come to form. Shami needs more practice to get his line/length correct. Kulkarni may seem like a wasted spot, but, I do not trust that all our bowlers will be fit. If Jadeja is unfit, we need to choose from Binny or Kulkarni because we have two spinning allrounders in Ashwin and Axar already. Hence, I would play both and see who bowls the best.

Regarding the batting, I would open with Dhawan and Rahane and drop Rohit, who has got many chances abroad and generally failed. I would rather give an extended run to Rayudu in the middle order.

Dhawan, Rahane, Kohli, Rayudu, Raina, Dhoni, Axar, Binny, Kulkarni, Shami, Ishant for the first game. Bhuvi rested to give his ankle more time. Ishant, if he is ready, to get him match fit again.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by PKBasu »

prasen9 wrote:PKB, we play Bangladesh in June, Sri Lanka in August, South Africa in Oct/Nov all at home, and then Pakistan away. None of these tours have been finalized in the sense the exact dates have not been set. So, I suppose you do not see it in the calendar. Please see: Calendar
OK. Thanks for that! It is bizarre that we haven't yet had Bangladesh playing a test match in India. Really quite rude of us! They will only come to India for their first (one-off) test two years from now.
Home series against SL (who have yet to win a series in India) and South Africa give us a chance to climb quickly back up the test rankings. Hopefully, we will then be in a position to beat Pakistan in Dubai early next year.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by Sin Hombre »

Dhawan fails again. Played 4 balls, could have been out for all 4. When is he going to get dropped?
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by shibi »

True. Was thinking the same thing.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

Sin Hombre wrote:Dhawan fails again. Played 4 balls, could have been out for all 4. When is he going to get dropped?
After Rahane is dropped, maybe ... unless either can score some runs. Over his career, Dhawan has performed better than Rahane has done abroad. Why are we targeting Dhawan only? It is a shame that Rayudu performed abroad and then does not get any chances whereas abroad-failures such as Dhawan,and Rahane keep getting chance after chance. Dhawan, and Rahane should have been jettisoned and we should have tried openers who can bat abroad.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by Sin Hombre »

prasen9 wrote:
Sin Hombre wrote:Dhawan fails again. Played 4 balls, could have been out for all 4. When is he going to get dropped?
After Rahane is dropped, maybe ... unless either can score some runs. Over his career, Dhawan has performed better than Rahane has done abroad. Why are we targeting Dhawan only? It is a shame that Rayudu performed abroad and then does not get any chances whereas abroad-failures such as Dhawan,and Rahane keep getting chance after chance. Dhawan, and Rahane should have been jettisoned and we should have tried openers who can bat abroad.
Rahane has atleast shown in tests that he can bat outside the subcontinent. Dhawan is a proven failure in both formats outside Asia.


Dhoni with a poor innings here, wasted the batting PP and then got dismissed way before the end. Akshar goes for a duck.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

Tests and ODIs are different games. Dhawan has at least shown that he can bat in ODIs at home and some parts of the world. Rahane has failed in his entire ODI career. Rohit and Raina, other home ODI successes, have learnt over the years to bat abroad. However, we have no comparables from the past of players who have failed in over 40 ODIs in total and had a successful career. Does not mean it will not happen. But, the probability of that is quite low. The probability of good ODI players at home learning to play abroad is slightly better, imho. Anyway, I would have dropped both and brought in Vijay.

Axar got out thanks to the BCCI. I am waiting for the World Cup where we will have a proven better system.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by Sin Hombre »

I would rather give Murali Vijay a chance as opener in ODIs.

#7 is also bit of an issue for India. Whom would you prefer in that position?


We are ending this 30 runs too short, need to fix the issues at the opener and #7 positions.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prasen9 »

I would play Stuart Binny along with Axar, Ashwin, and Bhuvi. That would make the tail somewhat strong. This team has five players with averages below 17, two below 10. That is a long tail. Ashwin, Bhuvi, and Axar are not established ODI allrounders. That is, they have not had a lot of practice to figure out how to bat when in ODIs. We can't afford both Shami and Umesh. Or Ishant instead of one of these. We need a bit more batting. Try Binny. If he cannot bat or bowl, then we will have to gamble.

Dhoni played an awful innings. He brought the Aussies back into the game. He clearly did not trust any batsman after him. If that is the case, he should play one more person who can bat. I would bring in Binny. The other option is to drop Axar or Ashwin and go with Rayudu. That would strengthen the batting but weaken the bowling because we would need 10 overs from Kohli/Rohit/Raina.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by Sin Hombre »

We lost the game because our #6, #7 and #8 were significantly worse than the Aussies. We cannot win the WC with this long a tail.

What we are missing is a Yuvraj or Sehwag here.
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Re: India in Australia, 2014-2015

Post by prashanthm »

Scoring 82/5 in the last 15.1 overs is not the best finish to win an ODI....
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