Perth Test Pre and during match discussion thread

[gsivak]

From just the bowling POV it may be an interesting gamble to bring in Ojha....but can team India afford to loose one of it few performing batsmen?

[jairamesh]

Is the Indian top order the oldest to play in recent memory? Sehwag 33 Gambhir 30 Dravid 39 :blink: Tendu 38 (39 in a couple of months) :blink: Laxman 37 :blink: Kohli 23 Dhoni 30 Three guys in the team are approaching 40:omg:, and it's not like they are great specimen of athleticism. Fecking selectors have just been resting on their laurels over the last 4 years without implementing any succession planning, typical. Anyone have stats from past regarding bhudahoes riddled Test teams? Note: No ageism meant :hehe:

[Sid]

But but but ............they are still scoring consistently apart from 2-3 important series here or there.And also there are not like for like replacements availavle ATM,so they should play till 50.And also because replacement for Gangu at no.6 hasnt been found yet,it automatically implies these legends should go on forever.

[amiret]

Drop India's Second highest run getter of this series ??!!! Ashwin has score more runs than Sehwag, Dravid ,Laxman & Kohli with a better Strike Rate He bowled well at the MCG . Sydney was a flat dead track.

[Pagalpanti]

^

[amiret]

Sachin is playing very well at the moment , and he runs hard between the wickets which indicates he is in good shape.

[Utalk]

Laxman could be on borrowed time and needs a hundred in this series. Dravid was class apart in a disastrous tour of Eng four months back. Can see him playing for another twelve months. Sachin is here to stay. He is playing well but needs to get this 100 monkey off his back.

[VRV Singh]

And also because replacement for Gangu at no.6 hasnt been found yet' date='it automatically implies these legends should go on forever.[/quote'] :haha:

[Iconoclast]

Ashwin is India's second best batsman though.

[singhprakash72]

Actually move Ashwin to up the order (may be 3 or 4 down) and get rid of either Dravid, VVS or Kholi in middle order. Let Ojha or a Pacer come in as a specialist bowler and keep Ashwin as batting allrounder. It seems funny but really think how much probability that any of the above mentioned specialty bats would add in WACA ? at least we have a fighting unit with 4 bowler +1 allrounder. As for batting the... old adage suffices that if 5 batsman cannot score no way adding 6th batsman will help.

[singhprakash72]

reminds of English Ashes team of 1994-5 to OZ....it included grandpas Graham Gooch, Mike Gatting ...got royally s*#@$ just like the present Indian team.

[Crookbond]

Actually move Ashwin to up the order (may be 3 or 4 down) and get rid of either Dravid, VVS or Kholi in middle order. Let Ojha or a Pacer come in as a specialist bowler and keep Ashwin as batting allrounder. It seems funny but really think how much probability that any of the above mentioned specialty bats would add in WACA ? at least we have a fighting unit with 4 bowler +1 allrounder. As for batting the... old adage suffices that if 5 batsman cannot score no way adding 6th batsman will help.

Interesting! Last time we opened with Irfan Pathan, isn't it?

[Bumper]

Ashwin bowled well at the MCG. SCG was a dead track and to top it, there was no pressure on the Aussie batsmen. Let's not forget that Bhajji averaged in the 60s in his last tour to Australia. These are alien conditions for a spinner. Only the great Kumble has respectable figures Down Under. That said, Ashwin is a genuinely good batsman. He's an allrounder and is our second best batsman of the tour. In fact, he was good enough to make a 100 at the SCG, with a bit more support from the tail. And, Ojha is no Ajmal. Does not possess anything unique in his arsenal to terrorize the top order Aussie batsmen (who are mostly left handed). Only in India, we'd think of replacing a bowler who also happens to be our second best batsman, as a reaction to consecutive batting failures.

[Cricketics]

Stats from the past?? yes.. I will give you the stats. The stats say that these guys when combined and playing together took us to that world no. 1. We did lot of changing and chopping in every era and these guys were the only one whom no one could touch because they were the ones scoring runs and most of them still are. It wasn't too long ago when we just drew the test series in South Africa. A nation in which we have had history of either losing by 1-0 or 2-0. It's the same team which came down from 2-0 to win the perth test in 07. The game before perth, the sydney test could have been a different result and hence the series result too which went in aus favor(debatable). Same team which played this cricket in aus 4 years ago, waited for Aus to come so that they could thrash that team 2-0. Something which we never achieved in history of our test cricket. Easy to blame selectors. This is just their worst run all together. We have to live with it. They are still pretty good. If they are still scoring 50s when the team has a big task such as 480 run trail, I think the are still pretty good.

[jairamesh]

Stats from the past?? yes.. I will give you the stats. The stats say that these guys when combined and playing together took us to that world no. 1. We did lot of changing and chopping in every era and these guys were the only one whom no one could touch because they were the ones scoring runs and most of them still are. It wasn't too long ago when we just drew the test series in South Africa. A nation in which we have had history of either losing by 1-0 or 2-0. It's the same team which came down from 2-0 to win the perth test in 07. The game before perth, the sydney test could have been a different result and hence the series result too which went in aus favor(debatable). Same team which played this cricket in aus 4 years ago, waited for Aus to come so that they could thrash that team 2-0. Something which we never achieved in history of our test cricket. Easy to blame selectors. This is just their worst run all together. We have to live with it. They are still pretty good. If they are still scoring 50s when the team has a big task such as 480 run trail, I think the are still pretty good.

Yes, when they were younger and fitter (physically there is huge difference going from 33 odd to 40). And their fielding has been atrocious, Dravid's drops have become pakistanisque like. And it's not like Dravid, Laxman, and Sachin set the world light in their debut years. Some fu cking fans are expecting our youngsters to average 50plus from the word go! I would like to see Kohli to finish this series, and similar would have loved to seen Mukund and Rohit play right through England, West Indies and this Series. We are making effining judgments on them playing intermittent single games.

[Cricketics]

JaiRamesh, You remember the 06 tour to England under Dravid which we won. We sucked. Yes we sucked in fielding. The sky sports commentry team with Nasser Hussain were having field day. They kept mentioning how much our fielding sucks. We were never that fit in that series too. Still we manage to outsmart those wannabe english Tipu Sultans at their home.

[Old guy]

lol i think it wasnt his fault he bowled really well in first match spinners wont be effective on flat tracks ... ur fast bowlers are supposed to get wickets.. spinners come into play later in game..ashwin almost got hussey in first match but dravid dropped it.. he was bowling well there i think bowling would do fine if there is little help i trusth them to atleast take 20 wickes but batting need to wake up play rohit in place of virat(i still think virat will do well in future but currently he is not ready) thats the only change i see gambhir did well in 2nd innings.. sehwag can always fire/misfire u cant drop dravid and sachin and vvs got 60 odd right ? i dont see any changes from the current squad but ya after series1 of big three needs to go and person like pujara needs to bat at no 3 with tendulkar or dravid around to support him on other end

[jairamesh]

JaiRamesh, You remember the 06 tour to England under Dravid which we won. We sucked. Yes we sucked in fielding. The sky sports commentry team with Nasser Hussain were having field day. They kept mentioning how much our fielding sucks. We were never that fit in that series too. Still we manage to outsmart those wannabe english Tipu Sultans at their home.

Indian fielding generally sucks, but Dravid dropping sitters in the slips has become the accepted norm right now, but regardless Dravid, Laxman and Tendu were much younger, probably at their peak. But also the likes of Zaheer, RP Singh, Sreesanth were in better shape. Another point in that series the likes Bell, Cook, Prior, Tremlett, Anderson were persisted with through the series (probably the insistence of Fletcher) and they continued to face misery a few months latter in Australia, went downhill until Flower came in. But these same players are now the world beaters because the coaches and selectors believed they would come through. Test cricket ain't like ODIs or even other sports, where young prodigies will come good straight away. The nature of home and away games makes Test cricket unique and puts the best through their paces. Only hardened experience (though jury is still out on the Banglas:hehe:) will tell us where current players sit. And what's the harm, if we tried the youngsters from the Windies tour in June to the end of this series (that's nearly 14 games!), and if they failed then fair enough...maybe call the seniors back.

[The Realist]

Stupid thinking, a move like this would achieve nothing. Ashwin is one of the better performers on this wretched tour and to drop him would actually weaken the batting, that HOW BAD things have got. This kind of thinking epitomises why Ind cricket is floundering around like a drunk in the sea, not prepared to make the hard decisions but make easy cosmetic changes. Move the bulls-eye closer to your former batting colleagues Ganguly, thats where the real problems need eradicating.

[dial_100]

I feel ODI retirement is coming from SRT very soon. I think he will retire from both after 100-100.