India tour of Australia, Nov 21 - Jan 18

[bigfluffylemon]

nice to see you back, yuppie

seconded

[Red Devil]

bad selection again from India

lack of depth in the batting is a major problem with those 4 seamers - need Ashwin, Jadeja, Bhuvi to provide some lower order depth to the batting. Also, Umesh was really disappointing with his bowling

Lyon doing really well but still pretty disappointing to see Ind struggling against a normal spinner - again!

[Durhamfootman]

a good one, though

[sussexpob]

Has Lyon become the most important player in this Australian team?

Depends how you judge it. Is he the best match winner? No, the seamers are more dangerous. But a decent spinner with dual qualities is harder to find. I did read before this series that Lyon's record in certain grounds in Australia is poor, and in others its good. I think he has done very well in Adelaide and Brisbane. I think hes been annihilated consistently in Sydney. Not sure on MCG. But it might be a factor, judging on his personal history, that pitches that have been in the first of this summer has suited him more. His worst venue is about to come, so can he turn it around?

Hard to know what types of pitches we are going to get though. Like England in the summer, there is definitely a feel that the pitches are suddenly becoming more bowler friendly when the Indias rock up to town. We have seen two pitches that have allowed bowlers to get in the game, after a few summers of Aussie pancakes. Certainly no coincidence.

[backfootpunch]

Has Lyon become the most important player in this Australian team?

Depends how you judge it. Is he the best match winner? No, the seamers are more dangerous. But a decent spinner with dual qualities is harder to find. I did read before this series that Lyon's record in certain grounds in Australia is poor, and in others its good. I think he has done very well in Adelaide and Brisbane. I think hes been annihilated consistently in Sydney. Not sure on MCG. But it might be a factor, judging on his personal history, that pitches that have been in the first of this summer has suited him more. His worst venue is about to come, so can he turn it around?

Hard to know what types of pitches we are going to get though. Like England in the summer, there is definitely a feel that the pitches are suddenly becoming more bowler friendly when the Indias rock up to town. We have seen two pitches that have allowed bowlers to get in the game, after a few summers of Aussie pancakes. Certainly no coincidence.

Hopefully the pancakes are gone for good and this trend continues makes for more interesting cricket

(And will deflate Smith's inflated batting average if he returns)

[sussexpob]

In fairness to the sport, I think the general trend of crap wickets is gradually getting better. The quality of the product as entertainment has got better, heres to hoping that closer matches with bowlers having something will also kick start a new generation of fans..... and maybe with that, more batters who actually have techniques.

Could you imagine some of these lads playing against an Ambrose or McGrath? Vijay missed a ball on middle stump this test, and when I say missed it, his bat wasnt in the same post code.

[backfootpunch]

In fairness to the sport, I think the general trend of crap wickets is gradually getting better. The quality of the product as entertainment has got better, heres to hoping that closer matches with bowlers having something will also kick start a new generation of fans..... and maybe with that, more batters who actually have techniques.

Could you imagine some of these lads playing against an Ambrose or McGrath? Vijay missed a ball on middle stump this test, and when I say missed it, his bat wasnt in the same post code.

They'd have averaged 11 not 21 bowling to some of the defensive techniques you see at the moment

[yuppie]

The preparation of these more sporting pitches is much better for the game. I really hope we don't see a return to the flat pitches of recent years. The talk is that the MCG pitch will be more like the Perth one. Fingers crossed.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Might be a masterminded plan to facilitate the introduction of the four day Test.

[andy]

Talk that Vihari might open at the MCG....surley pointless calling up Agarwal if they were going to do it? Rahul has to be left out he looks shot to bits

[meninblue]

Has Lyon become the most important player in this Australian team?

Depends how you judge it. Is he the best match winner? No, the seamers are more dangerous. But a decent spinner with dual qualities is harder to find. I did read before this series that Lyon's record in certain grounds in Australia is poor, and in others its good. I think he has done very well in Adelaide and Brisbane. I think hes been annihilated consistently in Sydney. Not sure on MCG. But it might be a factor, judging on his personal history, that pitches that have been in the first of this summer has suited him more. His worst venue is about to come, so can he turn it around?

Hard to know what types of pitches we are going to get though. Like England in the summer, there is definitely a feel that the pitches are suddenly becoming more bowler friendly when the Indias rock up to town. We have seen two pitches that have allowed bowlers to get in the game, after a few summers of Aussie pancakes. Certainly no coincidence.

Lyon gets good bounce. He was matchwinner in second test. I think he is leading wickets taker list in this series. He is picking key wickets for Aussies, especially the one of Virat he picked caught at slip. Iirc he has been sensational this year or is it for two years now.

[meninblue]

Such a long break between the two tests, Ravi Shashtri might return to India with team thinking series is over.

[yuppie]

Lyon has a great chance of being the leading test wicket taker for 2018, the same as he was in 2017.

Fair to say that 2017 was a much better year for him, but he is finishing 2018 well.

[Arthur Crabtree]

India drop both openers and Australia bring in Mitch3 for Handscom.

Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari will open for the tourists.

[yuppie]

I thought with Australia brining back Mitch that he must have been in some impressive form.

His first class scores this season....21, 11, 6, 30, 1, 44, 151. That hundred was way back at the start of November.

Peter Handscombs record including against India. 7, 13, 34, 14, 81, 53, 4, 23, 123, 2, 48 and 27.

Handscomb was not in great form, but i'm not sure Marsh is in any better form.