India in Australia, 2020-21

[Kumar]

Pitch looks pretty dandy so far! I would expect Australia to let India chase around 420 and declare soon after tea

Jadeja living dangerously! Lead now 99

Now jadeja is injured! On his bowling hand! Falling like 9 pins

[Atithee]

That didn’t sound good. I hope it’s not cracked.

[Kumar]

Looks like Saha can replace Pant if he can’t keep

I think if Ashwin had stayed, India may have gotten lot closer! 94 run lead

[Atithee]

I feel there is one more run out left.

[Kumar]

Pant injury was a huge momentum changer! Even though he looked tentative against new ball, i think if he had not been a injured he would have scored at least a 50 if not more,

Will be interesting to see if he is going to keep! But aindia will definitely feel that this was a game, where they shed could have gotten lot closer! There was not much in the pitch!I expect Lyons to play big role in 4th innings

[Kumar]

Present to answer your question about coaching Pant,
https://indianexpress.com/article/expla ... d-7137248/

[Atithee]

Siraj didn’t have to poke at that ball. Why can’t our tail hang around a bit more?

[prasen9]

Present to answer your question about coaching Pant,
https://indianexpress.com/article/expla ... d-7137248/

Thank you Kumar. So, he had stints with Ratra at the NCA and a 10-day stint with More but he is repeating his mistakes. I agree with More's idea. Have a wicket-keeping coach travel with the team. The time he spends at the NCA is few and far between given the busy schedule.

This match is lost. Forget it and move on.

[Tolamu]

My pessimistic prediction:
Whatever the tsrget is India will be all out below 100/150.
Sorry for my prediction . But that's my gut feeiling says.

[Sin Hombre]

everyone here agrees that we have lost tolamu.

We need to crack Cummins when he comes out to bat. Australia has been deliberately targeting most of the middle and lower order all series and aiming to get them injured.

[Rajiv]

Our Bowling Dept is up to the mark, but sadly it is the Batters who have let us down.
Rahane played well last game; but overall has been poor for sometime; Pujara does not have a hundred for 2 years. Vihari has tapered with lack of exposure and even the IPL teams have ditched him as well. Mayank has technical flaws suddenly.

Rohit (33); Rahane (32); Pujara (32) after all these years of investment; as batsman these guys should have started to dominate

[Atithee]

What we need is to send some hard hitting batsmen to give Australia a scare. Who better than Rohit, although he’s a slow starter in LOI. Too bad Pant is injured. I don’t care if we lose but we should come at them hard and let them sweat.

I agree that injuring players is a deliberate ploy. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about it. Our bowlers aren’t able to be as lethal or perhaps don’t want to be.

[prasen9]

Unfortunately, Bumrah and Ashwin seem to have lost their mojo maybe after being over-bowled. We need to trust Siraj and Jadeja (when fit).

Rohit averages 26 in the southern hemisphere at a SR about the same as Dravid's career SR. Over 21 innings. And about the same away over 32 innings. We should stop selecting these failures. I suppose we do not have any interesting juniors knocking on the door to keep the likes of Rohit and Vihari out? Unless Vihari fires in the innings here, I would want to see Mayank back as opener (just because TINA). I actually do not even mind Mayank, Prithvi, Pujara, Rahane, Gill in order to firm up the MO. Promote Jadeja to #6 and Pant at #7.

By bringing back the likes of Rohit and KL Rahul. And, continuing with Vihari after this series if he does not succeed, we will be saying to the youngsters that scoring at about 26-30 is fine abroad. That is not acceptable.

It is sad that Pant is jeopardizing his place by failing the basics. Why was he 25kg overweight? Even if it was not that much, he clearly had a mid-section. Yes, there was COVID-19 but players with self-discipline kept their fitness and nutrition up at home. Lack of attention to detail is going to doom his awesome talent if he does not take heed. I would like him to succeed.

[Atithee]

That’s why I’m saying let them loose like Jadeja was swinging at every ball at the end. Let them sweat a bit.

[PKBasu]

Ashwin's run out was unforgiveable. The first thing I learnt as a batsman playing school cricket was that anything hit in front of the wicket (from point and square-leg forward) is the batsman's call, and anything behind the wicket is the non-striker's call. Ashwin failed to heed this basic tenet: he didn't back up as non-striker and then was ball-watching rather than looking/listening to the batsman, who had the call on whether to run or not. (It was a really easy single, even for a slow runner like Ashwin, but he did himself no favours by stopping and looking before running). And then of course he ambled across rather than scrambling in the face of danger. Really soft dismissal, which probably cost us at least 50 runs. Jadeja was left to play with the long tail.

Vihari really isn't test class. I don't know how many more iterations we need before that reality is accepted. Since there is no Ranji trophy being played this year (bizarrely so, since it was played even during World War II, and the 1971 war) it will be very difficult to find players to replace this lot. How do we determine who is in form??