Border Gavaskar Trophy, India v Australia, 3rd Test 1-5 March, 1430hrs at Indore

[The 747]

Our best partnerships have been playing normal cricket (labs and smith test 1, labs and Khawaja this test, and labs and Head)

Also all have included labs.

Thought he has been good without going on with it. His class is evident at the crease and he looks solid.

 

[Blue1980]

He will may in England some how and broad will embarrass him again

Warner is done as a test player

 

[Blue1980]

You're right but thing is they give us green seamers nothing like test decks will be so really what's the point? Would be better to produce some junk rank turner in Australia somewhere to practice on but on these dog s**t pitches there is only so much batsmen will be able to do.

We could send a whole group of 25 over there and play against ourselves on a turning track.

 

[Gethelred]

Its the poms they are going to be going to be at our lot non stop all tour, their media are scum of the earth and their fans were even booing when smith was injured last tour so who cares what they think? only thing that shuts them up is winning cant be picking badly out of form players because we are worried about getting negative press in england of all places.

Just because a fire is already burning doesn't mean you should throw more petrol on it.

Still think people are reading this all wrong anyway, warner has a long term commentary deal in place with fox sports he is not going to put that in jeopardy by going to war with current players when they are the blokes he will be expected to interact with in his new media role, do people seriously not watch all these player interviews and media puff pieces from 7/fox every summer? the players and these broadcasters are content partners if warner goes to war with players the players will freeze foxsports out.

Putting the cart before the horse.

Warner has a long term commentary deal with Fox because CA don't want him going public with what he knows immediately, wants leverage over him equal to prevent him going public for as long as possible. There's still a chance he decides to hell with all of them; money doesn't talk to everyone equally, and hanging out in a job you hate around people you hate mightn't be the allure some here think it is.

I think there is a much more simple reason warner is still around and that is CA are terrible at handling this stuff and have been for a while now, we dont move out of form senior players on we simply wait till even the player realizes they are cooked and they retire, CA would have been hoping warner took it upon himself to retire this summer so they could avoid actually making the call themselves but if a player is stubborn we can end up with situations like this.

Hmmm...

That's a good deal more likely than not. It plays into everything that's happened, up to and including the last player contracts disputes of which Warner played a major role IIRC. I still maintain that there's an element of seeking to control Warner's narrative over the immediate future, but I don't disagree that CA have been poor at telling players their time is up.

 

[Blue1980]

India deserved that. Spinning decks are to be expected but the pitches this series have gone too far, especially the third test - in all honesty it turned the match into a bit of a lottery.

You can't defend decks prepared differently for left and right handed batsmen... I thought there was a clause that a pitch must be prepared evenly but I never saw it bought up in the press so maybe not?

And this test was obviously pretty farcical.

Good captaincy from Smith this test - easily the best I can remember from him. Disregarding the sandpaper debacle for a moment, I always found him to be pretty unimaginative and his little temper tantrums in the slips were hardly the stuff of Churchillian inspiration... But he was bang on this test match.

He’d be a better captain now, more experienced both as a cricketer and a person

 

[Blue1980]

If we end up at 2-2 ends up one of our best tours of India somehow I expected 3-1 in a best case scenario

2-2 would be a heck of an achievement despite what some people would claim that we didn’t get the trophy etc.

We have lost series in 98, 04, 08, 10, 13 and 17, and won 04. Last series we didn’t lose before that was 1986.

 

[Blue1980]

They will pick him for england sadly.

I’ll bet large sums of money he won’t be part of any test squad for australia ever again

 

[Blue1980]

I heard from an Indian a year or two back that there was a growing opinion at home that there was no further need to prepare dust bowls as the Indian side was now winning away from home. Evidently the blatantly doctored home tracks have been a sort of security blanket to ensure home wins during the decades they sucked outside of India.

Their batting has been a bit s**t recently (even before this series) so a more traditional pitch where it’s good to bat on before breaking up they probably thought was too risky as our top 6 more likely to play long innings than theirs currently on a flatter deck.

 

[Blue1980]

Yea but after 3 Tests pretty much all the batsmen averaging 20-30, some below 10.. yea no good imo but I tend to agree it may be somewhat due to s**t batting.

Yes and it isn’t like these are bunny batsmen who’ve never scored runs on difficult decks

 

[Blue1980]

Play warm ups on dust bowls in Bangladesh

Or Afghanistan or whoever (though they’d have to backtrack on their fake moral stand in not playing them, which they will do anyway when they play them in the World Cup).

Playing some tests which sit outside the WTC, even one test would be perfect warm up and great for a smaller nation desperate to play more test cricket.

 

[frankrizzo]

We could send a whole group of 25 over there and play against ourselves on a turning track.

that seems only way to do it, play our own warm up game with 3-4 best spinners in country on other side to our top 7 bats but any warm up game india give us will a 3 day game on a greentop without one quality spinner in their side not just a waste of time probably worse than just prepping in nets.

 

[Blue1980]

I noted that in the first two Tests Cummins stood at mid on and held a warm and fuzzy conversation with the bowler asking him where he would like the field to be placed. Smith on the other hand stood at first slip and pointed. Smith much more decisive.

I would reinstate Smith as Captain but knowing CA they will stick with Mr Nice Guy.

Part of me wants Australia to square the series 2-2 but if that happens there is every chance that CA will believe they got it right and issues like the lack of preparation and poor selection will be swept under the carpet.

I think we can see with Cummins he had some off field issues to contend with.

Also sample size of one with smith, need more than that.

He also had the advantage of a side having 2 matches in India, and the fact we’d worked out our best side (green and starc being available too, Warner being unavailable also helped).

 

[Blue1980]

I am not defending the 3rd test pitch .. it was awful ..

But we all know that Indore wasnt supposed to be the venue for 3rd test .. They came to know 2 weeks (14th Feb) before the test started.
I think to prepare an international standard TEST pitch 2 weeks would be not enough

i have no knowledge about preparing cricket pitches & how long it takes to prepare an international standard Test pitch


Also one important factor India has had hottest Feb this year in 122 years that along with its nearly end of cricket season in India
Also that venue had 11 T20 domestic matches since OCT 2022 and 1 ODI vs NZ in Jan 2023 .. thats lot of wear and tear for a pitch

So taking all this into context I would blame BCCI for not allocating a regular Test venue than the curator of the 3rd test pitch

It’s cumulative, it wasn’t that much worse than the first 2 tests in terms of pitch

 

[Blue1980]

that seems only way to do it, play our own warm up game with 3-4 best spinners in country on other side to our top 7 bats but any warm up game india give us will a 3 day game on a greentop without one quality spinner in their side not just a waste of time probably worse than just prepping in nets.

I’ts pretty much what we did in 2019 in England

 

[raptalia]

I think we can see with Cummins he had some off field issues to contend with.

Also sample size of one with smith, need more than that.

He also had the advantage of a side having 2 matches in India, and the fact we’d worked out our best side (green and starc being available too, Warner being unavailable also helped).

Smith was more decisive out there he looked like he was in charge which is what a Captain should be. Time to put Cape Town behind us and move on- Steve Smith is the better leadership option but that does not mean it will happen.

 

[Gethelred]

that seems only way to do it, play our own warm up game with 3-4 best spinners in country on other side to our top 7 bats but any warm up game india give us will a 3 day game on a greentop without one quality spinner in their side not just a waste of time probably worse than just prepping in nets.

Tour Sri Lanka/Bangladesh then India, with a two week gap in the middle; not quite long enough to go home, long enough to get settled in India before the first test. Treat it as one big tour, and head over around 2 weeks earlier than needed to acclimatize players to Sri Lankan conditions.

 

[Syd_Bombay]

I think visiting spinners are better than previously on average too.

T20 has helped bowlers learn more tricks than it has batsmen.

No sorry .. the quality of spinners and even fast bowling is not as good as compared to 15-20 yrs back

Compare the best spin bowlers of 15-20 yrs back Warne Murali Kumble. Saqlain , MushtaqAhmed Ajmal Vettori Swann vs T20 style spinners Rashid Ashwin Jadeja etc
Main weapon for spinners are drift loop speed accuracy and then the tricks/ variations .. Nowadays spinners are more defensive because of T20

 

[The Casey Cat]

We could send a whole group of 25 over there and play against ourselves on a turning track.

Yea fund our own rank turner somewhere and practice on that. More worthwhile than any BCCI organised tour match where they just #### us.

 

[freo_leo29]

I’ll bet large sums of money he won’t be part of any test squad for australia ever again

You realise they didn't even officially drop him right? he went home injured

Will play the WTC and likely the Ashes before "retiring"

 

[StillAtLarge]

I’ll bet large sums of money he won’t be part of any test squad for australia ever again

We can only hope

 

[PhatBoy]

I don’t think me or anyone here thinks Aussie pitches are the gold standard, or they vary much from one another. I’d argue we don’t come up with specific pitches to negate opposition strengths though.

I don’t think england really do either, it’s just how their pitches generally are.

I’d argue India have only taken it to a new level in very recent years, ever since england beat them in 2021, it’s like every test is a small variation of a rampant turner. Before this it was like maybe a Pune type wicket here or there, now it’s every single test.

Now do I prefer to watch cricket in India with their wickets compared to Australia, I definitely do. I however would like to see wickets around the world have independent curators, as it’s not going to do test cricket much good in the long run if majority of matches are walkover series to home sides.

And before you say “that’s what makes test cricket special” how difficult it is to win from home, I think it’s more difficult now and requires a rethink as sides don’t have the same time to prepare for tours as they once did.

I’m not expecting every test to be like NZ v england style thrillers, but you need the game to have more jeopardy than it currently does. I love test cricket and want it to survive and we have seen some great test cricket the last month around the world. I just want to ensure it can get stronger and thrive in the years to come.

All fair comments.

I know it was a bit of a cripple fight in that it was basically a contest as to who could be ‘less bad’ with the bat, but I thought the centurion wicket for the WI/SA test was really good

 

[Around the Wicket]

Yes and it isn’t like these are bunny batsmen who’ve never scored runs on difficult decks

Yea shows how hard the decks are, Smith and Labs averaged 24 and 30

 

[Sphynx]

Mate they have tried it previously and been stitched up.

As the BCCI just dish out garbage wickets that don't reflect any of what is expected in the test series.

That’s why we need to play a 1 off test against Afghanistan in India prior to the series starting

Likewise I think we should play a 1 off test against Ireland prior to each away Ashes.

 

[Around the Wicket]

Smith was more decisive out there he looked like he was in charge which is what a Captain should be. Time to put Cape Town behind us and move on- Steve Smith is the better leadership option but that does not mean it will happen.

Cummins stands there with senior players asking what to do all the time

 

[raptalia]

That’s why we need to play a 1 off test against Afghanistan in India prior to the series starting

Likewise I think we should play a 1 off test against Ireland prior to each away Ashes.

Good suggestions I think we could also resurrect the Australia A concept and send up and coming players to India. We used to do it but it has lost favour.