Brilliant: Same XI for 2nd TEST

[sm332]

i hope you do see some lineup changes opening change and one middle order change seem imminent

[zubinpepsi]

if they wanna play same team then atleast they have to change the batting order.. too slow openers shouldn't be there on top.. may be bring Yuvi up and make him open instead of Yuvraj..

:hmmmm2:

[Cricketics]

^ u r very picky... j/k fixed..

[bnaick]

Expect bhajji to take some serious stick from Ponting.

[Rajiv]

Tics, I really don't think picking Yuvi as an opener is a good choice Yuvi - He is low on confidence and will be a big risk to open with, imagine him going in the 1st over and then david comes who is also having a bad run. Soon we might be stuck on 10 for 2 If they have to go with the same team, it has to be Jaff/Dravid

[Cricketics]

kuch toh karna he padega boss is situation ka.. RD and Jaffer haven't been playing well together..it's a very bad problem... there was a time when we were looking for sehwag's partner for opening, now sehwag is not even there in opening slot.. i hope if R.D and Jaffa open again, they silence their respective critics..as it will be good for the team that openers will be getting runz for the team early..

[Rajiv]

Actually, Pick Sehwag instead of Jaffer

[Cricketics]

i would love to see sehwag play too.. wanted to see him @ MCG.. we really need him for WACA TEST.

[Chandan]

..not sure if its posted already, juts saw on TV Same Team and YES, Rahul Dravid will open again, I hope he opens a lot this time

Many of you are concerned about loss of form for Dravid or Yuvraj not performing in his first test in Australia. But I'm more worried about Jaffer who looks like being completely sorted out by the Aussies. It seems that he wouldn't score even a single half ton in this tour. And Bhajji? Had he got quite rude after dismissing Ponting in the 2nd innings? Looks like Ponting is looking to settle scores with Bhajji at SCG. He might get hammered by the Aussie skipper, if the track is the same placid one that we had last time. And Ponting's response to Dravid opening the batting has been chilling. He said that it didn't matter who batted where, they had four to five plans for every batsman. And at MCG, the way Lee set up Sachin in the 2nd inning was quite scary. Is Ponting really correct? Are our batters sorted out?

[talksport]

>>And at MCG, the way Lee set up Sachin in the 2nd inning was quite scary Bit of exaggeration IMO.... Lee got lucky. The real setups were Husseys and Clarks wickets For me Zaheers No Ball dismissal is the real turning point of the match. Back to OP ....Nothing wrong with personnel....I trust India to come back strongly

[suraj]

India will lose every match

[talksport]

India will lose every match

Can we rephrase that.... Australia starts as favourite every match I feel better:D

[Chandan]

India will lose every match

Suraj, I'm also pessimistic, but not this much.

[gator]

It is funny tht u really bought into the whole setting up thing with Sachn's dismissal, Chandan.... tht ball was a rank bad ball tht would have been square cut to the fence 9 out of 10 times by Sachin.... it bounced a lil more than usual, thts all to it... he would have got the same dismissal with the same amount of probability even if he had not bowled those 3 bounccers already...

[gator]

India will lose every match

ok.

[Chandan]

It is funny tht u really bought into the whole setting up thing with Sachn's dismissal' date=' Chandan.... tht ball was a rank bad ball tht would have been square cut to the fence 9 out of 10 times by Sachin.... it bounced a lil more than usual, thts all to it... he would have got the same dismissal with the same amount of probability even if he had not bowled those 3 bounccers already...[/quote'] I know that Gator--it was a rank bad ball, quite wide which should have been left alone by Sachin. But just see the two deliveries before that. Sachin missed to connect on both occasions and it is perhaps the mind set of the batsman that either he tries to play every ball on its merit, like Sachin was doing in England, or he tries to go after the bowler to knock him off his plans. Sachin was trying to go after Lee here, and perhaps Lee knew that Sachin would chase that wide ball. He slipped it there as a gamble where he could have been hammered or 4 or if the batsman beaten from the first two deliveries which were short, didn't get himself into position could edge behind. To Australia luck, the latter happened. I'd prefer that Sachin plays each ball on its merit instead of trying to dominate the bowlers.

[Bumper]

Many of you are concerned about loss of form for Dravid or Yuvraj not performing in his first test in Australia. But I'm more worried about Jaffer who looks like being completely sorted out by the Aussies. It seems that he wouldn't score even a single half ton in this tour. And Bhajji? Had he got quite rude after dismissing Ponting in the 2nd innings? Looks like Ponting is looking to settle scores with Bhajji at SCG. He might get hammered by the Aussie skipper, if the track is the same placid one that we had last time. And Ponting's response to Dravid opening the batting has been chilling. He said that it didn't matter who batted where, they had four to five plans for every batsman. And at MCG, the way Lee set up Sachin in the 2nd inning was quite scary. Is Ponting really correct? Are our batters sorted out?

Dont fall for those Aussie mind games. This three or four plan thingy is all BS. May be its a genuine comment from Ponting, falsely bolstered by our batsmen's poor showing. But our own batsmen are to blame for most of the dismissals. Aussies do the basics well though. They dont dish out any freebies. Nor do they let up on the field (either in the form of catching or ground fielding). All this meant that they choked our batsmen successfully. The same old formula that worked in the last BG trophy. Siddartha Vaidyanathan too touched up on the same points in his cricinfo article. The consistent choking built pressure and in other cases, meant that the time spent by our batsmen in the middle, did not count for much. The only way out of this misery is to attack. Ponting is no superman. If he is attacked, he too will have to spread the field, like any other captain. Veeru did that in the past successfully. Sachin did it in this game, in patches. And Aussie bowlers (barring Lee) are inexperienced. Last time, Bracken, Bichel & Brad Williams, didnt have a clue where to bowl when they had two set batsmen, taking the attack to them. I dont expect Clark, Hogg & Johnson, to be any diff. Jaffar is overrated. He failed in SA. He failed in Eng and now he's failing here. (If you carefully analyse his big knocks, they all came under the best of batting conditions). I said it long before (when i made a case for Sehwag) that i didnt expect Jaffar to average beyond 25-30 on this tour. Am not concerned about Yuvraj. Its a make or break series for him & he responds well under pressure. If he doesnt, may be he isnt good enough. Am most concerned about Dravid. Not because his form will hurt us this time (which does), but more because that his poor form, may lead to him being dropped and with it, we may lose India's most successful Test batsman ever (Dravid may retire, if he's dropped). This time around, I think it will be a 90s deja vu. Aussies will perhaps win all tests and if they do, I'll be massively disappointed, as i dont think this bowling lineup (of Lee, Johnson, Hogg & Clark) is that good.

[Rajiv]

Chandan, jeez you sound really worried and you took every word at face value Aussies are world champs and they do whatever they are doing to win these games, if they don't say these things in the media then they are really not aussies So you mean to say, their video clips shows the entire dismissals of Tendulkar, Dravid etc and the whole aussie team cook up some popcorn and watch it like a movie They have played so much that the weakness or low point is not really a secret. They must have seen kumbles video too? what happened there Its very simple, they are better in all aspects of the game, we are not I'll start with fielding - out of 10, we are 4

[Chandan]

This time around, I think it will be a 90s deja vu. Aussies will perhaps win all tests and if they do, I'll be massively disappointed, as i dont think this bowling lineup (of Lee, Johnson, Hogg & Clark) is that good.

Same with me. I expect Australia to win the series but not by a 4-0 margin. It seems that even if the present bowlers are not as good as what they had in 90s, they are well prepared for the series, having done home work on every Indian batsman. This is where we are lacking I suppose. We don't have to let them execute those plans against us. And for that we need a player who has the potential to smash them all around like Hayden did to us after working hard for the first hour. India obviously hasn't done any work on them and I wonder why their plan is so defensive. You can't compete with Australia being defensive. And if we know this, obviously our players must be knowing this too. Then?? What is the reason behind such a defensive start to the inning?? What the hell were India trying to do?

[Bumper]

I know that Gator--it was a rank bad ball, quite wide which should have been left alone by Sachin. But just see the two deliveries before that. Sachin missed to connect on both occasions and it is perhaps the mind set of the batsman that either he tries to play every ball on its merit, like Sachin was doing in England, or he tries to go after the bowler to knock him off his plans. Sachin was trying to go after Lee here, and perhaps Lee knew that Sachin would chase that wide ball. He slipped it there as a gamble where he could have been hammered or 4 or if the batsman beaten from the first two deliveries which were short, didn't get himself into position could edge behind. To Australia luck, the latter happened. I'd prefer that Sachin plays each ball on its merit instead of trying to dominate the bowlers.

Am actually glad that he is playing with this renewed approach. He will be a walking wicket, if he tries to pull a Dravid, playing the way he did against England. Sachin's decline as a test player, started when he started playing this way. His mediocre two years can be entirely attributed to his defensive batting style. What he did at Sydney three years ago or in England this year, arent his norm, more like exceptions. The disciplined Aussie bowling & fielding unit means, time spent at the crease must count for runs. See how Ganguly ended up the highest run getter, for the time he spent at the crease ? Ganguly batted 276 mins in both innings & ended up scoring 83 runs. Sachin scored 78 total runs, inspite of batting the least amt of time (134 mins). Thats how he must play. Compare this with Dravid's appalling strike rate. Dravid spent 257 mins, for 21 runs. Time must count for runs.