India in Australia, 2018-2019

[ankit1407]

Our guys are just scared to get into line of the ball.. 1-1

[Atithee]

Just no pride shown by our team beyond Vihari. Out for ducks. What a pity! They could have just forfeited instead of embarrassing themselves.

It seems like a double whammy. I think our openers’ average has been rather poor too. Would be interesting to see wicket by wicket comparison among all the world teams.

[PKBasu]

Bhuvi has 63 wickets in 21 tests at 26 runs apiece, the best bowling average of any Indian pacer who has more than 50 wickets, I think. It is asinine not to play him in tests!!

Plus he averages 23+ with the bat!

[jaydeep]

Interesting stats of the match by Avijit Ghosh.

Why India lost at Perth & what must be done at Melbourne

[prasen9]

MCG
Mayank, Parthiv, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Vihari, Pant/Pandya, Ashwin/Jadeja, Ishant, Shami, Bumrah

SCG
Mayank, Parthiv, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Pandya, Ashwin, Jadeja/Kuldeep, Shami, Bumrah

So, you are betting that Parthiv with his 19 average in the SANE countries (over 17 innings, 3*) is a better bet than playing Rahul. Remember Rahul figured things out by the fifth test in England. He is possibly the future. Give him two more tests. Why replace a classy player out of form by a crappy player never able to do things outside India.

We simply cannot play a tail of Ishant, Shami, Bumrah. I would replace Shami with Bhuvi. Maybe move Pujara up and play both Pant and Pandya. They are not going to give us a spinning pitch in Sydney. So the team may need to be the same or very similar.

[PKBasu]

Parthiv’s average from SANE countries is entirely based on when he was 17-19 years old!! Isn’t it ludicrous to keep citing those numbers now, 14+ years and lots of experience later??

[PKBasu]

So KL Rahul’s century in he dead-rubber Oval test — after failing in the first four England tests — now forgives all his failures in the current series. I don’t mind him playing in the middle order, it is his OPENING I object to, because he gets out so often before making 10. It’s a fact he makes big scores once he gets past 20, but he does that once every 4-6 innings, which is just not consistent enough for a test opening batsman.

[prasen9]

No it does not. But, the question is limited. Is he a better bet to invest in rather than Parthiv? I would say "yes". Class (or lack thereof) is permanent but form temporary. If you want to fly in another opener who is capable, I do not have a problem trying him.

Fair enough. His away average in 2018 is 14. Why do we want to go back to deadbeats such as Parthiv and Rohit?

[Atithee]

How about getting Dhawan back as an opener? I know he’s not in the squad but he may be ok. Blooding a newbie in Australia is always going to be a challenge. We don’t use home games for newbies to cut their teeth and that’s a shame.

[prasen9]

If you notice, Pujara, Kohli and Rahane are doing okay on this tour because they have had prior experience. I do not think Dhawan will cut it but maybe if Melbourne or Sydney is a batting wicket, then he can flourish. We should consider pushing Pujara up. He is practically opening.

I guess Patel cannot be worse than these two we have now. But, if nobody is going to cut it, I would go with the younger guy. I am tending towards pushing Pujara up and playing five bowlers with Hardik, Ashwin/Jadeja, Bhuvi being three of them.

[Sin Hombre]

MCG
Mayank, Parthiv, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Vihari, Pant/Pandya, Ashwin/Jadeja, Ishant, Shami, Bumrah

SCG
Mayank, Parthiv, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Pandya, Ashwin, Jadeja/Kuldeep, Shami, Bumrah

So, you are betting that Parthiv with his 19 average in the SANE countries (over 17 innings, 3*) is a better bet than playing Rahul. Remember Rahul figured things out by the fifth test in England. He is possibly the future. Give him two more tests. Why replace a classy player out of form by a crappy player never able to do things outside India.

We simply cannot play a tail of Ishant, Shami, Bumrah. I would replace Shami with Bhuvi. Maybe move Pujara up and play both Pant and Pandya. They are not going to give us a spinning pitch in Sydney. So the team may need to be the same or very similar.

I hadn't realized PP's record was that poor. He averages 32 in Australia but much worse elsewhere. Only reason to include him would be if we were dropping Pant.

Maybe better to play this at MCG then though unfortunate for Pujara

Mayank, Pujara, Vihari, Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Pandya, Ashwin/Jadeja, Ishant, Shami, Bumrah

Unfortunately we have no decent middle order batsmen either to play instead of Pandya. Maybe play Bhuvi instead of Ishant as you say to at least bolster the batting.

[kna]

India has announced their XI for Melbourne:

1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Rishabh Pant (wk), 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Like Sin Hombre, I would have had Pandya in place of Rohit, and Bhuvi for Ishant. The pacers have had a heavy workload in the first two Tests, and Pandya would have been a useful 5th bowler, while Bhuvi would have added fresh legs and batting depth.

In the announced XI, Vihari is a better bet as an opener than Rohit. Unfortunately, whoever opens with Agarwal will be out of position.

I'm glad Agarwal is getting a shot. Hope he plays in Sydney too.

[sameerph]

As per reports, Vihari is going to open alongside Mayank, Rohit at #6. A sensible choice within the XI picked but I too would have gone for Pandya and Bhuvi for Rohit and Ishant.

[ssp]

Unread post by sameerph » Tue Dec 25, 2018 4:56 am

As per reports, Vihari is going to open alongside Mayank, Rohit at #6. A sensible choice within the XI picked but I too would have gone for Pandya and Bhuvi for Rohit and Ishant.

My choice too, but it would be too sensible for the management. Besides, we might win...but that's not the priority for the people making these (idiotic) decisions.

[Sin Hombre]

Toss won, fist pump.

Kohli and co need to grind hard and win from here.