Australia tour of India, Feb 17-March 29

[Dr Cricket]

The dharamsala win and the kolkata win will be very pleasing for india to beat NZ in a green seaming deck and then beating Australia in the most Australian conditions in india.
india got a decent squad that could give Australia, NZ, England, SA a scare away from home.
management should be pleased that the fast bowling group got some depth at the moment, Shami, Bhuvi, Umesh and Ishant all being very good at the moment.

[GarlicJam]

The Dharamsala pitch might have suited Aus more than the other three, but they were very unsure of it.

So much so, I think they missed a trick in not doing an O'Keefe for Bird swap. Hindsight and all, though.

[GarlicJam]

I have just read of Kohli's comments post test. What petty behaviour. Quite pathetic, in my opinion.

Unbecoming on an Indian Captain.





however, it IS pretty ironic.

[Dr Cricket]

Also india win the world number 1 title for the year, also won it last year.

[meninblue]

the point is Adi the only think Kohli is achieving is making everyone hate him and the Indian teams.
if he does it too much it will have an unifying effort in making the opposition team play better, not sure india actually want the opposition to play better overseas against them considering how hard it is to win overseas in the first place.

No, for a change it is good to see that Indian players are starting to show some self respect. It was okay that Sachin, Rahul, VVS never reverted to the Aussie sledging because they were very much concentrating on the match. It s also okay to me if some Indian player does not accepts crap just because past greats accepted it. However, that does not means Virat should also accept all the sledging. Like Saurav he also responds equally. And there is a long history. Sometimes whenever you recollect all the history and then an incident is triggered the over reaction is bound to happen. I don't blame him as we have already had enough crap accepted in lot of aspects. Personally i never liked Virat showing middle finger to even Indian crowd, but i dont mind if he gives it back to some opponent teams who provoke him. Maybe he will lose his wicket or score few runs more, i don't mind. There are some things more important than result of cricket match. And i repeat we have had enough. Also, i would not hate him if he does it to someone who provokes him.

[yuppie]

So when do India play their next test, and against whom? I can not find any fixtures that seem to go beyond the IPL.

As for Kohli, he is just showing the cricketing world the type of person he is. Pantomime villain to the rest of the world, but loved in India. Every team has that type of player in the team, i guess its just rarer for that person to be the captain.

Humility in victory is a nice trait to have, but not a necessity.

[ddb]

Here's what was actually said.

reporter: Virat, what was it about this Australian team that made them your toughest challenge over all these tests.
Virat: I think they, they had the belief of making things happen in these conditions. It's something that I sensed in their body language, in the way they played their cricket. They believe that they can, you know, win sessions and win situations and they are willing to enjoy the challenge, that was the most important thing and the most challenging thing for us.
Where teams really lose their morale once they lose a test match in India, but they kept bouncing back and they had the desire to compete throughout and that's why they are the number two side in the world. You know, you expect that from Australia, once they get a sniff they would put you under pressure, but you know, the way we responded I'm really proud of that as well. But I would say the relentlessness in their desire to make things happen in these conditions was probably the reason why they kept giving us, you know, a great fight til the end of this test match, so a lot of credit goes to them.
Reporter: Virat you said before the first test in Pune that a lot of the Australian players were really good friends with you off the field, has that changed during this series or is that just heat of the battle stuff that's gone on here?
Virat: No it has changed for sure. I, I thought that was the case but it has changed for sure. you know, as I said, in the heat of the battle yes, you want to be competitive but I've been proven wrong. The thing I said before the first test, that has certainly changed and you won't hear me say that ever again.

Bit more level headed than reported. Seems like some on here got baited by clickbait

[yuppie]

Jadeja had a great series, but stats wise bowling was it any better than Lyons? Indeed all 4 spinners had pretty similar series stats wise. Ashwin being the worse.

But batting wise Smiths 3 hundreds marks his performance out from his peers. 6 hundreds in total for the series, 3 scored by one player. 20% more runs than anyone else.

I guess the winning team has to have the player of the series. But who would be the first person from either team that you would pick after this series in these conditions. Im guessing it would be Smith and not Jadeja.

[meninblue]

Jadeja had a great series, but stats wise bowling was it any better than Lyons? Indeed all 4 spinners had pretty similar series stats wise. Ashwin being the worse.

But batting wise Smiths 3 hundreds marks his performance out from his peers. 6 hundreds in total for the series, 3 scored by one player. 20% more runs than anyone else.

I guess the winning team has to have the player of the series. But who would be the first person from either team that you would pick after this series in these conditions. Im guessing it would be Smith and not Jadeja.

Jadeja had the highest wickets (25) as compared to Lyon (19) , O'Keffe (19) , Ashwin (21). His average per wicket (19.58) was also less than 3-4 runs as other spinners.

Jaddu also scored 127 runs , two of which were very important 50's.

Smith scored 499 runs.

[yuppie]

Here's what was actually said.


Reporter: Virat you said before the first test in Pune that a lot of the Australian players were really good friends with you off the field, has that changed during this series or is that just heat of the battle stuff that's gone on here?
Virat: No it has changed for sure. I, I thought that was the case but it has changed for sure. you know, as I said, in the heat of the battle yes, you want to be competitive but I've been proven wrong. The thing I said before the first test, that has certainly changed and you won't hear me say that ever again.

Bit more level headed than reported. Seems like some on here got baited by clickbait[/quote]


Most people have read his comments and taken their views from that, not the click bait. Many people have heard Kohli speak through out the series and have formed opinions from that, and then taken his comments at the end of the series in that context. Smith came out and was contrite in what had happened and what had been said. A way to possibly heal wounds and bury the hatchet. Kohli, has chosen not to. So be it.

[Dr Cricket]

if they had Australia man of the series like England does then Smith would win it and india man of the series would be Jadeja.

[rich1uk]

Jadeja had a great series, but stats wise bowling was it any better than Lyons? Indeed all 4 spinners had pretty similar series stats wise. Ashwin being the worse.

But batting wise Smiths 3 hundreds marks his performance out from his peers. 6 hundreds in total for the series, 3 scored by one player. 20% more runs than anyone else.

I guess the winning team has to have the player of the series. But who would be the first person from either team that you would pick after this series in these conditions. Im guessing it would be Smith and not Jadeja.

i agree smith was the standout batsman but i would disagree that jadeja's stats were pretty similar to lyon or o'keefe. 25 wickets at 18.5 is quite a bit better statistically than 19 at 22/23. that is 33% more wickets than anyone else took as well.

he also chipped in with a couple of important 50s at key times.

i would probably have given it to smith but dont think jadeja getting it is a big deal.

[yuppie]

Jadeja had a great series, but stats wise bowling was it any better than Lyons? Indeed all 4 spinners had pretty similar series stats wise. Ashwin being the worse.

But batting wise Smiths 3 hundreds marks his performance out from his peers. 6 hundreds in total for the series, 3 scored by one player. 20% more runs than anyone else.

I guess the winning team has to have the player of the series. But who would be the first person from either team that you would pick after this series in these conditions. Im guessing it would be Smith and not Jadeja.

Jadeja had the highest wickets (25) as compared to Lyon (19) , O'Keffe (19) , Ashwin (21). His average per wicket (19.58) was also less than 3-4 runs as other spinners.

Jaddu also scored 127 runs , two of which were very important 50's.

Smith scored 499 runs.

Jaddus runs helped to get hm the man of the series, but i certainly do not think he he was the stand out bowler in the way that Smith was the stand out batsman in the series.

Lyon only got to bowl in 6 innings and 5 overs in todays 7th innings. whilst Jaddu got a full 8 innings to bowl in, so he would expected to get more wickets. S/R wise Lyon and Jaddu were very similar.

Just my thoughts though. And Jaddu is a worthy winner of the man of the series.

[Dr Cricket]

Weird series for Stats.
Top run scorers.
Smith 499 at 71.28
Pujara 405 at 57.85
Kl Rahul 393 at 65.50

only 3 batsman with decent stats the rest have basically failed.
Renshaw with 232 runs averages 29.

For wickets
Jadeja 25 wickets at 18
Ashwin 21 wickets at 27
O'keefe 19 wickets at 23
Lyon 19 wickets at 25
Yadav 17 at 23

Looking at it looks like india batting depth and Umesh Yadav wicket were the difference between the sides.
Australia lack of depth in the bowling was probably a factor as well in the loss.

[yuppie]

Australis lack of batting depth was always going to be its Achilles heel.

Australian bowlers did a good job, but in the end their batsman in the last test just did not give them enough runs to bowl at.

Starc was not missed bowling wise with his injury, but surprisingly his runs might well have been.

Number 6,7 and 8 for Australia are still a major concern batting wise. Wade had a good series with the bat, but not a great one. And Saha was better, with bat and gloves. Saha's 100 batting at 8 in the 3rd test pretty much meant India could win back the Border Gavasker trophy. Obviously helped with Jaddus 50