Border Gavaskar Trophy, India v Australia, 1st Test 9-13 Feb, 1430hrs at Nagpur

[akkaps]

If Maxwell was available, I reckon Green, Maxwell, Head (and potentially one of the left arm orthodox spinners) for Renshaw, Handscomb, Warner (and an unlucky Boland) would have us looking stronger with more options in the 2nd Test.

With Maxwell out of the series, and Green probably still unfit for the 2nd Test it will probably be Starc for a still unlucky Boland! And that's it!! Smith, Labuschagne and Renshaw to bowl some spin.

If everyone was fit
Head, Usman, Marnus, Smith, Maxwell, Carey, Handscomb, Green, Cummins, Lyon, Murphy
Batting until 8/9, 3 part time spinners and two that will churn out the overs, and you've got your two quicks in Cummins and Green to alternate the pass

 

[Voice of the G]

Why are we discussing Maxwell at all?

Seeing some of you are it looks like Maxwell will be playing in the next shield game starting Feb.20.His biggest problem is running between wickets and mobility in the field and makes you wonder whether this will be a long term issue as it was a bad break.

 

[The hands of stone]

prep for india is a long term thing surely? a practice match on some green top vs indians 4th stringers wont change anything, we rarely produce batsmen fit for these conditions and if we do how often is that due to our system or just more about that approach or training methods that particular player had growing up?

This is a 50 year issue not 5 not 10 50 years we have been failing in india, one thing we could do is start finding out how indians grow up playing spin, aussies love to sweep and reverse sweep for example yet indians dont do that anywhere near as much so maybe we could start teaching our guys to play spin the way the guys who actually know how to play it are taught.

It is absolutely , my point more was how can we expect the team to perform at a decent level with this type of prep .
The performance was terrible but it was on minimum prep.
Speaking from batting perspective unless your a freak player you are needing 3-4 weeks solid work and nets to get yourself properly adjusted.

With the schedules its not possible but we had a slsp dash hope it works out lead in .
We really got what we deserved playing a very good side on there home deck

 

[Blue1980]

If he was fit, he'd at least open up some new options for us.

He can bat 7 and bowl spin, so we could play 3 quicks with him as the second spinner, or play with him as a third spinning option. Possibly even Green AND Maxwell if we wanted to stiffen the batting line-up while keeping 5 bowling options.

Shame Maxwell wasn’t fit as yes he’d give us options. Would of certainly played ahead of Renshaw and Handscomb (who did ok but still Maxwell would of been selected ahead of him).

 

[Blue1980]

It is absolutely , my point more was how can we expect the team to perform at a decent level with this type of prep .
The performance was terrible but it was on minimum prep.
Speaking from batting perspective unless your a freak player you are needing 3-4 weeks solid work and nets to get yourself properly adjusted.

With the schedules its not possible but we had a slsp dash hope it works out lead in .
We really got what we deserved playing a very good side on there home deck

Depends, does CA want to appease C7 or win overseas test series.

I think we have our answer.

 

[Around the Wicket]

Why would you have Head opening and Usman in the middle order? Head has been at his best at no. 5 over the past 2 seasons.

They'll screw Head up if they open with him.

Renshaw is an opening batsmen - if they drop Warner then FFS pick Renshaw as the opener. .

Renshaw is s**t.

 

[Blue1980]

Renshaw is s**t.

The logic of dropping a guy who made 1 and 10 to replace him with a guy who made 0 and 2 doesn’t really seem to make sense.

I guess Renshaw could theoretically be better as an opener?

 

[Around the Wicket]

The logic of dropping a guy who made 1 and 10 to replace him with a guy who made 0 and 2 doesn’t really seem to make sense.

I guess Renshaw could theoretically be better as an opener?

The bloke flukes a score every 8 shield innings, he isn't the answer.

 

[Rabish Binney]

The bloke flukes a score every 8 shield innings, he isn't the answer.

Yes, you are correct he may not be the answer.

But he is an opening batsman and was selected on this tour - so if he plays he has to open IMHO.

 

[The 747]

If Maxwell was available, I reckon Green, Maxwell, Head (and potentially one of the left arm orthodox spinners) for Renshaw, Handscomb, Warner (and an unlucky Boland) would have us looking stronger with more options in the 2nd Test.

With Maxwell out of the series, and Green probably still unfit for the 2nd Test it will probably be Starc for a still unlucky Boland! And that's it!! Smith, Labuschagne and Renshaw to bowl some spin.

Yep. Boland would be unlucky but I just don't see how he is going to take many wickets on these pitches. One or two yeah but then what?

Starc will go for more runs but he has ways to take wickets, strengthens the tail considerably and will create rough for our off spinners.

 

[The 747]

Whether he can take wickets at Test standard in India has yet to be proven, same as Sri Lanka where he had to pull out of with injury. But he has taken wickets in Asia in Bangladesh in 2018 with a 7 wicket haul, while he had often performed well in A tours. His Test average of @32.5 is not too shabby and at #8 he gives us much needed late order runs. Plus he is a brilliant fielder. The reason CA keeps picking him is because of his versatility.

Scored less than 200 Test runs ever. Half of those runs and the only 50 were in the first match a decade or so ago.

 

[grumbleguts]

I love how the Australians asked to use the Nagpur pitch to train on a dry wicket, so the curator watered the crap out of it.

You watch indian test matches for the interest in how it unfolds, but never watch it invested in a result. It is fixed. They don't even care how they look.

 

[Around the Wicket]

I love how the Australians asked to use the Nagpur pitch to train on a dry wicket, so the curator watered the crap out of it.

You watch indian test matches for the interest in how it unfolds, but never watch it invested in a result. It is fixed. They don't even care how they look.

Away tours are meant to be tough and India is the toughest, they probably don't need to pull s**t like that too win, would be nice if they were just good sports tbh.

 

[WCE Wizard]

million dollar questions
a) Do we drop Warner and bring in Travis Head
b) Who opens the batting

 

[WCE Wizard]

You still shouldn’t be conceding 200+, heck the number 10 made 20 odd…that shows you all you need to know about the bowling. Captaincy was pathetic too. At least we’ve finally shipped Swepson off. That’s a positive

We were way to defensive no yorkers? Bouncers? SLower balls try something

 

[WCE Wizard]

He would be at worst number 8 for most countries around the world. India have 2 world class all rounders in their lineup which makes them bat ridiculously deep. Even Shami is a decent number 10.

Sadly yes, Jadeja and Ashwin are good with the bat, Jadeja averaging more than 40 + over the past3 years and this side had no Pant or Bumrah. Allrounders are gold, allow you to play an extra bowler

 

[grumbleguts]

million dollar questions
a) Do we drop Warner and bring in Travis Head
b) Who opens the batting

And Lyon, get better spinners in instead. Seems like an idea, if Hauritz had bowled as many test deliveries as Lyon, he'd have 453 wickets at a similar average and far more runs with the bat, and that's not accounting for improvement with experience. Hauritz got dropped because he wasn't Warne. Lyon with similar performance stayed in the team because he wasn't Michael Beer.

 

[WCE Wizard]

And Lyon, get better spinners in instead. Seems like an idea, if Hauritz had bowled as many test deliveries as Lyon, he'd have 453 wickets at a similar average and far more runs with the bat, and that's not accounting for improvement with experience. Hauritz got dropped because he wasn't Warne. Lyon with similar performance stayed in the team because he wasn't Michael Beer.

Agreed we need spinners to attack them and put the pressure and not allow the easy singles, do you suggest 3 spinners? or
a) Start, Cummins, Murphy and another spinner

 

[grumbleguts]

Agreed we need spinners to attack them and put the pressure and not allow the easy singles, do you suggest 3 spinners? or
a) Start, Cummins, Murphy and another spinner

If murphy is going to take 7 fer every time...

But I think we need to have a spinner that can exploit the other side of the wicket. I know Murphy and Lyon tried going around the wicket, but you need something special to happen to take wickets with the direction of their spin and bowling at that angle.

Perhaps Labuschagne practises the crap out of himself over the ensuing few days.

 

[Around the Wicket]

And Lyon, get better spinners in instead. Seems like an idea, if Hauritz had bowled as many test deliveries as Lyon, he'd have 453 wickets at a similar average and far more runs with the bat, and that's not accounting for improvement with experience. Hauritz got dropped because he wasn't Warne. Lyon with similar performance stayed in the team because he wasn't Michael Beer.

LMAO, shocking take.

Lyon is a much better bowler then Hauritz.

 

[Cleavy]

Expecting our selectors to be dumb morons with the only change being Starc for Boland.

 

[grumbleguts]

LMAO, shocking take.

Lyon is a much better bowler then Hauritz.

The figures don't show that, and neither in fact does watching the stupid bastard bowling the exact same ball 30,690 times in test cricket.

 

[11kgm]

Can't wait for us to pick Starc expecting him to reverse the ball

I'd nearly go 3 spinners and Cummins the one quick

 

[King Elvis]

If he was fit, he'd at least open up some new options for us.

He can bat 7 and bowl spin, so we could play 3 quicks with him as the second spinner, or play with him as a third spinning option. Possibly even Green AND Maxwell if we wanted to stiffen the batting line-up while keeping 5 bowling options.

But he's not fit, so it's irrelevant.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

We were way to defensive no yorkers? Bouncers? SLower balls try something

Took way too long to bring the quicks on.