@vella85 Yeah I still remember his knock against Eng (2014) when he single-handedly won the match for Aus, when they were 9 down. I doubt that will see any young player getting test cap in upcoming series (specially fast bowler) that's a reason, a good number of players back into the shield squads before a test series. ( here I am hoping that Indian Test squad will play 1-2 warm-up match too before test series)
Aus struggling with their batting ( bowling not much) let's hope that we can see some fine innings from Khwaja and Marsh in a test match. if Khwaja is fit and ready to play then he can produce good runs for Aussie camp. Any new batsman's name popping in your mind? Finch can only play in top order but I have my doubt that he can effectively face Bumrah/ Shami in red ball cricket be it New or old ball. Mitchell Marsh is good but he's struggling in Red ball cricket with both bat and bowl.
There is one player that has a chance of coming into the Australian team for the test series against India and that is Matthew Renshaw who is the forgotten Australian opening batsman. I still think Finch needs to prove himself as a test player so its going to be interesting to see what team the Australian board select for the first test match. I think the bowling line up is okay to take on India on home soil its just the batting line up that could see some changes. We will know more once a few more Shield games are complete. Yes I agree that India should at least have a couple warm up matches in Australia which I think they will like the last tour of Australia.
Okay so if Matthew Renshaw manages to get in the Test squad then that's means finch is out? Because i don't see him playing in middle order because it doesn't suit his gameplay. Tbh both teams struggling with their batting combination right now but for entirely different reasons.
According to me, Aus's bench strength doesn't look very strong atm and not to mention haunting memories of Sandpaper gate. On another hand, Indian bench strength is good, but still, we are struggling to find right batting combination in Test. In our top order, Murli Vijay and KL Rahul both struggling with their form. Prithvi Shaw is a new but very promising talent ( i am excited to see Prithvi Shaw and Rishab Pant). Ajinkya Rahane is not performing as well despite being a solid Batsman.
I think the Indian team will ask for at least one practice match because right now Ind A is playing 3 test series with NZ A in New Zealand.
Just checked South African's schedule and surprisingly they even played a practice match before ODI and T-20. And there is no mention of any practice match in Indian team's schedule right now.