Why we will do well in Test series again in aus this Dec/Jan

[Cricketics]

herez what i was thinking.. --- in 03 world cup we lost only 2 games, same in 07 world cup only 2 defeats -- India toured bangladesh rite after the world cup in 03.... In 07 rite after the world cup, India toured bangladesh again.. --- later in 03 Aus toured India for Odi Series(tri), later in 07 Aus tours India again for Odi Series --- Aus goes on to win the odi series in 03.... Aus goes on to win odi series 07 again ----India tours Aus to play 4 match test series.... Indian to tour Aus again to play 4 match test series all credit to cricketics only for coming up with this.. thank you and have a nice day

[Dirty_South]

:two_thumbs_up: gud one m8

[yoda]

So, will bucknor be umpiring this time as well? :eyedance:

[Mr. Wicket]

... or maybe because we've got a very solid test team, despite having a crap ODI outfit.

[kabira]

will aussies make same mistake as English...by preparing wicket that helps seamers... with no Shane warne, they might just do that..

[Hawkeye]

I rate our team as the 2nd best test side in the World so we should put up a better fight than anyone else could.

[Cricketics]

I rate our team as the 2nd best test side in the World so we should put up a better fight than anyone else could.

ya the fake worldz 2nd got thumped there 5-0 in ashes..

[bigdhoni7]

i just hope to god laxman plays. all this talk of yuvi wanting to be in the test team makes me worry.

[kabira]

our bowling will be decent enough with Zaks, RPS, SS, Munaf We need in form Dravid and I hope our belove neighbors can bring him to the great form.. We need Laxman to bat at number 3 I am confident that Saurav and Sachin will score some rains. My another worry is that last time our big 4 scored big tons...but somehow they have forgotten the art of scoring big...big big worry for me.

[bigdhoni7]

dont worry. kumble will score his double century at perth. just watch and wait! :D

[Bumper]

Without McGrath, we can always fancy our chances. We must go there with Sehwag.

[Gambit]

We'll do well and Veeru is a must. However, Jaffer and KKD didn't put a foot wrong in England. Although I wouldn't mind having Veeru at 6 either. I hope Sree and Zak don't get carried away by the bounce and make the colossal mistake of trying to bounce out Hayden and Ponting.

[ludhianvi]

another important aspect is where our matches are located. If we get Perth for the first test, I think we will lose that 90% of the time and then it will be very hard to make a comeback

[Donny]

ludhianvi, The first Test is in Melbourne. The third Test is at the WACA.

will aussies make same mistake as English...by preparing wicket that helps seamers...

Mate, it's you making the mistake of thinking Aussie wickets are prepared to suit the home team, as obviously happens in other countries. The selectors or captain have absolutely no say in this. In fact, if they tried it on, they'd be very quickly told to 'piss off'. Each venue has characteristics which are fairly constant. The WACA (Perth) wicket has been the exception in recent seasons. Even though it was known as a fast bowlers wicket, the better batsmen still did well there, especially the good cutters & pullers/hookers. But the last 2 or 3 seasons have seen quicks toiling, big totals being made and spinners picking up wickets. However, indications from the first match there, this season, are that it may be returning to it's exciting best. NSW lost 7/89 after batting first in the current Pura Cup match and WA was skittled for 99 in its first innings.

[living]

Mate, it's you making the mistake of thinking Aussie wickets are prepared to suit the home team, as obviously happens in other countries. The selectors or captain have absolutely no say in this. In fact, if they tried it on, they'd be very quickly told to 'piss off'.

If Aus were a weaker team then the captain would definitely have a say, now though sometimes I get the feeling the curator just wants to see the game last 5 days at least :giggle:

[Bongosamaj]

I predict a 2-1 series loss to Australia, with Indian win comming in Sydney and India getting creamed in atleast two other tests. As it stands now, i simply do not think Indian pace attack has enough to trouble the Aussies in Tests. I will go out on a limb here and say that Zaheer will be useless in tests vs the Aussie batting lineup- at best picking up a few lower order wickets along with a very meagre bag of occasional top six aussie wickets. He simply is not good enough a bowler to trouble the Aussie batting lineup and the ODI series is evidence enough for that. He's bowled at his best i've ever seen (except his initial year or two) and his bowling form is not much different from how he bowled in England. Yet, he's been pasted by the Aussies. Pathan would be a big mistake in tests- he at the moment is not a test bowler and i'd be surprised if Pathan does anything better than 10 wickets @ 50 average in 4 tests down under. The only pacer i think that offers India some semblence of promise is Sreesanth but even Sree would have to bowl out of his skin to make a big dent in the Aussie lineup. Last series down under, we got lucky. McGrath or Warne were not playing, thus giving our batting lineup a huge reprive. That may be the same as the upcomming series in OZ but last series, we had Agarkar bowl the spell of his life and Kumble had the most successful overseas series ever in his career. Its not very likely that Kumble will produce a stunner series yet again and frankly it is unreasonable to expect Kumble to replicate a 25+ wicket @ 30 average yet again down under. Our batting also, is in much worse shape than it was last time we visited Australia. We had Sehwag in roaring form ( I don't expect either Karthik or Jaffer to average 40 in Australia, let alone 50- they are not that good an opener. Sehwag is/was inconsistent but atleast, when he got in the 'zone', he could rack up a huge score, not putter along for a 70-80 and then get out). We had Dravid in the best patch of his batting career and its no secret that Dravid is struggling as a batsman right now, nowhere close to his 2002-2003-2004 form. Gangu has improved a fair bit as a test batsman but again, i think he'd do extremely well to average even 40 in Australia. Tendulkar too, is a much diminished test batsman, who's failed to average 40 against ANY decent opposition- home or away- for a very long time. Laxman too, is not in that great a form as he was in the same 2001-2002-2003 period. The only positive is that Dhoni is a hugely better batsman than any other wicketkeeper India took to Australia but our batting is far more bolloxed this time around than in 2003. In short, i don't see how India is going to draw the test series down under, let alone win it.

[The Outsider]

ludhianvi, The first Test is in Melbourne. The third Test is at the WACA. Mate, it's you making the mistake of thinking Aussie wickets are prepared to suit the home team, as obviously happens in other countries. The selectors or captain have absolutely no say in this. In fact, if they tried it on, they'd be very quickly told to 'piss off'. Each venue has characteristics which are fairly constant. The WACA (Perth) wicket has been the exception in recent seasons. Even though it was known as a fast bowlers wicket, the better batsmen still did well there, especially the good cutters & pullers/hookers. But the last 2 or 3 seasons have seen quicks toiling, big totals being made and spinners picking up wickets. However, indications from the first match there, this season, are that it may be returning to it's exciting best. NSW lost 7/89 after batting first in the current Pura Cup match and WA was skittled for 99 in its first innings.

Let me just quote a post of mine made on a similar topic some time back :

Donny, Australia has 5 main venues. Adelaide has always been a batting beauty but there is no doubt in my mind that Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth have become more batting friendly over the last decade. We can easily confirm by checking the average runs per wicket on them. I remember teams in Brisbane used to be bowled out for 200-300 runs in the first innings quite often in the 80s and 90s. As for Australian curators not being influenced by the opposition and situation, I have never seen a Sydney pitch as flat as the one India was given in '03-'04. There was no turn to be had from it even in the last session of the match. In the same series and previous test at Melbourne, some parts of the pitch were filled up on the last day when Australia was batting because it was deemed "dangerous".

[Rajiv]

Play Harbhajan too? Sree might enjoy the bounce but I agree with S'tabh; pitches seem very flat nowadays in Australia and batsmen in form should fare well.

[Bongosamaj]

Play Harbhajan too?

I don't think that'd be a good idea. For one, Harbhajan is a very ordinary bowler outside of the subcontinent. He's been clobbered in Sri lanka & Australia and the only place away from home he's succeeded is Zimbabwe and West Indies- a team known to have remarkable problems against quality bowling of any type with the exception of Lara & Chanderpaul ( and very occasionally, Gayle & Sarwan, atleast, in tests). Plus his negetive attitude at display is definitely worrying for a negetive spinner in tests is a dead duck. Spinners in test MUST be mentally disposed to at attacking all the time and Piyush would be a bold choice(though i don't think he is ready for either success or fame against the Aussies) but not alltogether a bad idea.

[The Outsider]

We can play two spinners only as part of a 5 man attack in Australia, and I hope we don't do that given our fragile batting.It's pretty much moot who they will take as the second spinner, don't think there is a realistic chance of him getting a game.