Topic: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] - page 33. (Read 168731 times)

Let's hope this time Bumrah will get some support from the other end. Akash Deep is a young talent and the Aussie batters are not very familiar with his bowling. Let's hope Akash Deep or Siraj could give some support. I don't want to forget that Australi will play on MCG where they will benefit as a host team. So, they might set the pitch according to their bowlers and not how India wants.

So far, the series is even. Whoever going to win the next match will jump forward to the series win. Either both teams have to win both matches, or one win and a draw will seal the series for them. Australia has the advantage as a host team.

I pity those players frankly speaking because the Christmas-New Year season is one of the best parts of the entire year and they could have spent it with their families and friends, but work is work at the end of the day.

Anyway, I am expecting India and South Africa winning their respective tests though they won't be one sided as you mentioned. Let's see what happens.

Correct, a lot of test matches start tomorrow as you mentioned. If you ask me who is the favorite in all these matches, then i would say that Australia, Pakistan and Afghanistan will go as favorites in their respective matches. However, it is not like that we see one sided matches, because India and South Africa are capable enough to give tough time to the opponents. We are likely to see some great test actions throughout the next 5 days

Third test was closer than it actually looks from the scorecard. In the second innings, Australian batsmen really struggled, with the reliable Travis Head and Steven Smith getting out for cheap scores. Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney as the openers never made any big scores so far in the tournament and now Sam Konstas will be replacing McSweeney for the fourth test. Australian batsmen don't have any defense against Jasprit Bumrah. Fortunately for them, Bumrah never receives enough support from the other bowlers.

Even in the absence of Travis, the Australia team is in good form to defeat the India team. In the third test match, it is the rain that helped India draw the match. If the climate was fair, the Australia team could've easily won the match. The bottom-order players took responsibility and stood wicket. If not even in the available time, the Australian team might've won the match. The Indian team is quite strong, but the wicket standing ability at the beginning isn't fair to make a big score so that bowlers can perform more confidently.

Man still we have more than 1 day in start of fourth test at historic MCG Melbourne Cricket Ground because match is going to play on 26the December 2024 Boxing Day not on 25th December I was expecting Mohammad Shami, but he is out of series now.

On this day we have two test matches more second South Africa vs Pakistan at the Centurion.

Third Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan at Bulawayo.

Still few hours are remaining and then we see the forth match between India and Australia. Last time the match was going so interesting but the rain interupted the match and we could not get the results.

However, now all eyes on the forth game to be played at Melbourne. India has just one obstacle to clear and that is Travis Head, he always knock to India and played the innings that always remember in the history. I am not sure if he will be playing this game or not ? But if he is not avaible then it will give a big edge to the Indian team.

Okay. I accept that. Probably this was not the best example, but aside from that, I believe you would agree with the rest. I don't remember when Dhoni retired from red-ball cricket, but if I am not wrong, he tried to continue for the team in white-ball cricket, but the selectors decided to give other players a chance instead of Dhoni.

I remember seeing some Facebook posts like Dhoni dropped Sehwag when he was captain. Later, BCCI dropped Dhoni because they wanted to prepare other young talents for the upcoming ICC events. It is okay if those young players are performing well.

At least theoretically, India is also in contention for a spot in WTC finals. That said, both Australia and South Africa have performed credibly so far in this season. They deserve to be in the finals. South Africa faced exodus of players for almost two decades starting from mid-90s, but the Brexit made such exodus less profitable for the players. And I believe that it is definitely a factor behind South Africa's current form. In case of Australia, they have the best domestic 4-day structure in the world and that is simply getting reflected in the performance of the national team. 

Might not? Lol. They 100% won't. Pakistan performed like crap in literally every format throughout this year which is why qualifying for the WTC final is simply a dream for them at this point.

South Africa and Australia have pretty much sealed their WTC final spots and I am rooting for the Proteas to finally win a big ICC trophy.

Yes, currently South Africa is in top positionon on the points table with 63 points. When South Africa played the Test series against Sri Lanka they won many matches against Sri Lanka in that series due to which they are now at the top of the points table. South Africa is a very strong team in the Test format these days, so this series might be too tough for the Pakistan team. If Pakistan can perform consistently against South Africa in Test series like ODI series then we will see good results from Pakistan. But even if Pakistan wins the Test series against South Africa, they might not reach the final to play the Test Championship as they are far down in the points table and their points are very low.

Australians never care about personal milestones and they play for their country. However, in India there is a "chalta hai" attitude, and people are quite used to corruption, nepotism and bureaucracy. So when a sub-standard player such as Mohammed Siraj gets retained in the squad just because he is very close to Kohli, hardly anyone questions it. But the same thing doesn't happen with Australia. If Pat Cummins performs poorly in a few matches, then he will be dropped and someone else will replace him.

Test Series between Pakistan and South Africa started from 26 December. South Africa are favorite to win this series against Pakistan, but Pakistan bastman are also inform and recently whitewashed South Africa in ODIs with 3-0. If South Africa win test series then there have enough chances to qualify for the final of the World Test Championship, but if Pakistan wins this series, then South Africa may not qualify for the final. Currently South Africa is in top position on the point table with 63 points, while Australia is in second position just 3 point difference and India in third position on the world test championship point table. South Africa's victory in this series against Pakistan will help to qualify for the final of the World Test Championship.

Indian team has the potential to give more better results if there is no grouping as you mentioned. When Kohli was captain he retained Rohit despite poor performance and same was returned by Rohit once he took over the captaincy. On Pakistan side, Babar Azam did damage to team as captain by retaining his friends in the team like Hassan Ali. Australians are on top because there is no room for such nepotism while selecting the team. 

As mentioned gangs and personal likes we have this all around subcontinent typical culture which kills many quality and skilled players when we have one player having strong position in team he started his new activity go through with own friends and players those can help him for having shortcut about few things we can't change this even as I am feeling India is having strong and good pool of players those can give good performance in all formats, but sadly mentality is the biggest issue.

We can't go on level of Australia/New Zealand and England even I am not in favour of bringing England but still they are good in few things and have fair policies about their sports, but now Australia is surely touching new levels of success with their system.

Agree with the sentiment but Dhoni's example is unsuitable for this argument.

In test cricket Dhoni retired in the same BGT Australia mid tour, similar to Ashwin and In white ball cricket he continued to play for the next 4-5 years.

You should not judge a player by seeing one match or a series. They have been serving for their for a long time. If they believe it's time to retire, you don't have to ask them. India has a lot of new talents. If they can perform, Rohit doesn't have to retire. The selectors will give a chance to these players over Rohit. For example, Dhoni did not announce his retirement at first, but they were dropping him from the team already. Later, Dhoni announced his retirement in 2020. If young players can play better then the senior players, Of course they will get a chance to play for India. Take Jaiswal as en example. This young dude smashing the bolwers!

Agreed. Australia is numero uno in the world of cricket considering everything currently and I feel none of this will change anytime soon. India is in second place while the rest of the countries keep trying to catch up to them.

The Aussies have perfected the trophy winning routine across all formats primarily thanks to their own hard work and dedication.

Even though India is seen as a force in the cricket world, they are far behind in terms of ICC trophies. Australia is the most successful team in ICC tournaments. Because in the Australian team you will not see any group. They are a group of a team. But in the Indian team you will always see a captain's group. They do not lack talent, but in big tournaments the players selected by their captain are given more importance. If you see, the players who were in the team during MS Dhoni's time are not in the team now. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal you cannot say that they were bad performers. Their form and performance are still exemplary for international cricket.

I see only India team which despite having more performers than other teams, they announce controversial squads in big tournaments and perform badly in big matches. If you look at big teams like Australia, England and New Zealand, you will see that they start arranging the squad before any tournament. But India is a bit different, instead of building a squad, they are busy scouting young players and giving more opportunities to youngsters than experienced players in tournaments. Other countries give more priority to experienced players in team building, but India gives more importance to talent.

Are you sure that there are grouping in the Indian Squad ? The era of Ms Dhoni was very successful one while the current era of Virat / Sharma is also good one for the Indian team. If there were politics in the India team, then they would not have been so much successful.

Also I think Australia has won most ICC trophies as they were world champions (ODI) for three consecutive times and at that time India were not so powerful team as they are these days.