Australia vs. India (in Australia)

Originally posted by BackwardPoint I also expect India to do rather well in the upcoming T20 and CB series matches. Their bowling won't be so severely exposed and many of their players' natural games are better suited to the shorter formats. These good performances may gloss over their atrocious performances in the Tests and soon all will be forgotten about.

   Whilst I see them doing alright , I still see Australia winning the triangular tournament .  The T20's are a toss up and I don't think it matters much who wins, but the Indians will take any sort of victory just now.

Great start for debutant and captain George Bailey, with a lovely win in wet conditions at Sydney's Olympic Stadium. Wade has started well too , in his bid to become Australia's keeper in all forms of the game with some excellent hitting. David Hussey was fantastic with bat and ball and played useful cameos, while Hogg was the most economical on the park in his comeback at 40!

That's a misdealt conclusion mystery. One failure, that too in a T20 game, is not the right thing to do while judging a player. I honestly think Rohit should be in India's long term test  plans.

fine win for Australia, all that talk about India will do well in LOI's is over hyped, a team losing so badly in test matches, I don't how can everything turn around so quickly, after all it's still cricket not some other sport!

Edited by sam_ahmed - 01 February 2012 at 5:24pm

sam - it's because they are a very good limited overs side. People need to start distinguishing between different formats, guys like Ashwin, Jadeja, Rahul Sharma - they are all made for T20 and ODI bowling. Kohli, Raina and Dhoni are all ODI/T20 batsmen. Every single one of the Indians who is in both LO and Test line-ups is a better LO player. India is a pathetic Test side but a fine LO side, I expect the CB series to be very closely contested.

I agree with Raj.  India is not really a bad test team, just that their form is poor.  Prior to this year, India competed very well in all overseas tour for around 4 years.

BP is correct in that they're a much better limited overs side than test team.  That I agree with.

Originally posted by MalhotraRaj84 Sometimes it is not about ability, look at Shaun Marsh.I know how good a player he is , but it isn't just clicking for him.The same way entire Indian batting line up is having a bad time. Indian batting had terrific bad form right from England series. Remember, they have lost few matches on pitches which were almost like sub-continent ones. It seems yesterday's opening partnership (43) was the highest in this tour. As they say "Form is temporary and Class is permanent", they will come good in some time. Good that they don't have any test series in another 7-8 months, because you never know with such pathetic form India might lose to any low ranked team.

Who says he is a good player? he is talented yes but he has not played enough games to proof that he does not have a record like Ponting behind him to show how good he is even his First Class record is below average and how can you say form is temporary and class is permanent about a team its 11 player team not a single guy.

... and another game, and another easy defeat for India or alternatively, easy win for AUS!

Rahul Sharma is a very very good bowler, and IND are smart they should always play him as the front line spinner, and they should have played 3 fast bowlers, after all you are playing in Australia.

Australia are deservedly no.1 in ODI cricket, they are an organised unit, with (literally) a dozen bowling options, solid all rounders and batsmen of all tempos - not to mention the fielding.

I don't agree with BP's remarks above. Choosing 3 or 4 spinners in Australia is a DEFENSIVE option, and it will seldom work in these conditions - you need attacking pacemen. NZ and SA proved that in 2001 when they embarrassed Australia, with the likes of Pollock, Donald, Bond, etc in both respective teams. Three sub-130kph fast bowlers will not suffice in Australia, especially when Ashwin is horribly out of form and Jadeja is just plain rubbish.

There's still 3 or 4 who haven't made their debut yet who are highly rated - Coulter-NIle and McDermott (son of Craig) are waiting to play for Australia... don't forget Hazlewood who was rated greater than Cummins and co...

Had a terrible terrible day in office today, so I hardly followed this even on the internet.

Dhoni truly is a reincarnate of Bevan, handled the pressure superbly to guide India to a win after a very useful knock my Gambhir. Australia were extremely sloppy, they really should have won and it was their fielding which cost them the game - had they fielded closer to their best then they would have snuck through. Only one dropped catch really, but the ground fielding and missed run outs were just not good enough. A bit of loss in intensity, but it has been a long, long summer for some of these players . Nonetheless, good stuff from India to win here and it really puts the pressure on SL to get their game together! I think an Aus v Ind final is the most likely outcome.

And what about Peter Forrest? Played superbly and haven't been impressed with a new ODI batsman for Australia since Ferguson. Excellent technique and at 26 he is mature and has a good temperament. Could find himself in the test squad for the Windies tour if he plays a couple more good knocks this series - I think he will get more opportunities this series, perhaps Punter will be rested at some stage and Clarke has a bit of a hamstring problem.

Doug is a better 'death' bowler than McKay, but neither possess the kind of yorker of the quality of Gul or Malinga. Looking forward to Pattinson coming back in this series, that's for certain.

Dhoni is an excellent ODI player but his performances in these last two ODIs are being unduly celebrated and praised. In the AUS game, he batted well in the last over but let's be honest, McKay bowled a length ball followed by a no-ball above waist height on leg-stump and then finished off with a slower ball half-tracker on leg-stump again. Rubbish bowling and good batting to capitalise on it but he was cleaning up a mess he got the team into. He was just batting serenely as the run rate was rocketing up and justified it by "I back myself in the last over". That's terrible decision-making, if the bowler turns up and bowls 3 or 4 perfect yorkers/slower balls, you're not gonna be regularly taking 13 runs off the over. Same thing in the SL tied game. He ran Gambhir out and then failed to accelerate for the next 6 or 7 overs before doing just enough to tie the game. A truly great finisher would have finished both those games off in the 47th or 48th over. Scampering to get 3 runs off the final delivery (bowled by Lasith Malinga, no less) to tie the game. Relying on McKay to bowl absolute dross with 12 needed off 4 deliveries. A truly great finisher would have seized control and finished both those games much earlier.