Topic: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] - page 857. (Read 152965 times)

That would have to be India's best ever test series win in their history and to win the series with most of their top players not playing is even more amazing. I said from the start that I thought India will play well in the series and may even cause some upsets along the way but I got it wrong with them winning in Brisbane as that is one ground I didn't expect them to win with Australia being so dominate on that ground and hadn't lost a test match there since 1988. Congrats to India on winning back to back test series in Australia, not many teams have been able to achieve this. This loss for Australia will hurt for a long time.

I think the only thing that is restraining BCCI from doing this is viewership. Facilitating a 3 match test series for Team India would eat up atleast 20-25 days from their schedule in this time they would have scheduled a foreign tour which will receive a much better viewership or a t20 tournament of so many matches with huge viewership and revenues. Bhai One thing I have realized growing up is that everything squares up to the revenues and money. Politics/ Government/ Sports/ Players everyone is at the end of the day playing for money. BCCI too has become calculative and all such schedulings are done solely based on their revenues. You can see how they were so keen to have IPL amidst Global Pandemic but hardly realized any need for Ranji Trophy.

I love his old era resistance which we don't get to see in the modern cricket. It has pros and cons as cricket has changed and now batsmen like to rotate strike as well but Pujara just bat bat bat and then bat again. He always frustrate opposition bowlers and tire them off completely. I wouldn't be surprise if Starc-Hazelwood-Cummins having a nightmare of him batting all day n night.

Sometime he frustrate non-strike batsman and fans too because it is common believe that he creates extra pressure on non striker batsman, which is kinda true on some occasion and fans being fan especially Indian fans love to moan because majority are high on IPL steroids (Not saying that T-20 format is not important) but everyone keep forgetting that the same Pujara was the Man of the series in the last Border-Gavaskar series. I have said many times that in SENA countries India need players like Pujara, Rahane and Vihari. Not sure about other countries but Poms and Proteas will not hesitate to commit murder just to get players like Pujara anyday. You could build team around such guys by including stroke players and power hitters like Pant, Gill, Shaw Pandaya, Mayank etc who can keep up with the run rates a bit. This gives you enough stability on one end and keeps the scoreboard ticking on another.

Yes there would be a time when same mindset could go wrong and you might end with the draw or worse, lose a game from the winning position but this same technique going to win game and series in the Test Cricket every time. Pujara is 32 so he will serve India couple of more years from here. India should invest on such players more and keep this bread alive, We had Dravid now Pujara but who's next wall for India? Big question mark atm.

I wouldn't say that India's lords seat is confirmed but yeah chances are high. Cricket is funny game and everything could change in short period of time.

What if India fail to win against England at home? We still need atleast 2 more wins.
What if Australia wins the series against South Africa with 2-0 or 3-0?

Its wide open, even now.

I highly doubt if BCCI want to follow 2 captain policy or change in status quo. Although its good idea and i am in favor of 2 captains idea for a very long time but i don't think its going to change anytime soon unless Virat failing badly which as a Indian fan i don't want to happen because his failure is team's failure.

Bhai i would say that now BCCI should arrange one thing, after every 1-2 years they should facilitate the India vs India A 3 match series instead of rubber dead ODI/T-20 series( if its not too much then add Combined strength of Ranji too). So that they could build more bench strength.

Before the match started, a lot of the analysts were pointing out about the huge gap in experience between the Indian pace bowlers and their Australian counterparts. Indian bowlers including Saini, Siraj, Sundar, Shardul and Natarajan were either making their test debut or just playing their 2nd or 3rd test. On the other hand, the Australian bowlers were vastly experienced, and all of them had more than 50 test matches each to their name.

Correct, entire series becomes memorable as first eating OZ in OZ itself is an achievement. Secondly, few experienced players were missed due to injury or personal reasons. Inspite of all such challenges with few players not even played more than 2 tests contributed in the success of the team is remarkable. As well with this test goes, no doubt Pant played a leading role in chasing the score today but cannot be forgotten Gill,Pujara,Sundar in the end who stayed on the pitch else India might even would have being all out if he was out.

Was shocked to find out that the Indian team in its current state was actually able to defeat Australia on their pitch in such an emphatic fashion. Amazing stuff. Thought this was end in a draw just like the previous one, but I was wrong just like many others.

The game-changing moment has to be Paine missing the opportunity to stump Pant early on in his innings. India would have been in deep trouble if Pant got out early.

What an Excellent win for team today. The most impressive thing about today's win is that it's the win of India A vs the Australian team. Except Rohit, Pant, Pujara and Rahane no one could have been said close to playing XI if the Whole team would have been fit. But now there will be an even fierce battle for having a place in playing XI when we will play in England. I wouldn't be surprised if I see a few of these young guns like Mohammad Siraj and Shubhman gill becoming the first choice for the playing XI.

This Team India just proved many of them wrong including me today. As was expecting maximum to be draw but the way they played and carried out their innings this whole unit just did something miracle and broken the Gabba record as well. What a moment and a day would be for Team India today and one of the special wins registered for sure.

Rahane has some good qualities, he likes to be calm and focused on his work. But Kohli is very aggressive. He often misbehaves with players. Now Kohli's opponents want Rahane to be the captain. But it doesn't look like the BCCI will fire Kohli from the captaincy right now. They will probably give Kohli a few more series time. If Kohli proves his worth, we will see Rahane as the captain of the Indian team next time.

@mersal I’m sure many Indians will be making similar demands to replace Kohli as the test captain, and even request that the selectors drop him from the longer format as it’ll keep him fresh for ODI and T20. However I don’t expect Kohli to simply surrender Test captainship, but if he was keen to be relived then Rahane should be named as the next captain for team India in the test format.

Source:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-australia/toi-poll-result-fans-feel-rahane-will-be-a-better-test-captain-than-kohli-shubman-should-be-a-regular-test-opener/articleshow/80048281.cms (This was before this test match, and I only expect fans to raise this demand once more).

Previously even I said about having a dedicated captain for the test which will also help Kohli to perform better as a batsman than a captain. I really like aggressive captaincy from Kohli but it won't work most of the time when it comes to the longer format of the cricket.

Anyway, the chances of moving the test captaincy are really low but if it happens then it's better for team India.

With this historic win now India is surely going to Lords and Australia lost their chances now I am feeling as opponent we have good from England or New Zealand both are good enough for first World Test Championship award without Kohli they are much better so now time for another change and hand over test captaincy to Rahane and ODI, Twenty/20 to Kohli what your view about this ?

Cheteshwar Pujara was playing the anchor role, he was hit in the body multiple times and i am sure he is hurt but he stayed in the crease so that the difficult phase of the match is taken care and that is more than important. The most impressive thing is that i consider this as the greatest win from India in the history of Test cricket with a really young team.

Full credits goes to Ajinkya Rahane.

Pujara is essentially a test batsman and that is one of the reasons why he never plays in IPL. One thing that almost everyone ignored is the fact that Pujara had hardly played any cricket before landing in Australia. Ranji season for 2020 was called off, and his last competitive game before the series was the 4-day match between Saurashtra and Bengal, which was played on 9th March 2020.

Haha really. India did well to break the record at Gabba that they were proud of. India beating Australia at their home is really something. Also India were without their key players but still they managed to defeat them. After all the controversies- i.e sledging, australian fans abusing, and so , young players did well to keep aside all the frustrations and shut their mouth right at their home.

Gives off wonderful feelings to fans... Love it  

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Was just curious about this- There was lot of questions asked about Pujara's slow batting style. What do you think about it? I've seen people praising such styles a bit when it is a tight situation and that playing style comes in handy if we are trying to get out of losing situation, but do you think the reaction could go opposite if it goes other way if a target seems pretty much achievable but somehow it goes towards draw? What do you guys feel as a cricket fan.

Pant, Gill, Takur, Saini, Siraj is everywhere but people forget to appreciate the effort from Pujara, he also one of the reason for Indian batsmen to keep their batting style up the mark since he was holding the one end like a wall for nearly 40+ overs. Actually, I missed the live game just waiting for the highlights to see how the game went on the day 5.

It is not a simple win for sure because 6 main players got injured but still the new bowling team managed to destroy the fortress of Aussies.

What a game from India. Australia could've never thought of such a win. With three wickets and 18 balls left means, India has reached the score in about 87 overs. During the first innings Rohit Sharma gave a good start whereas Gill fell very fast. In the second innings Gill have given a very good start which has strengthened the team performance from the very beginning. Defeating Australia and winning the series on their home ground has made India once again reach the first position on Test Cricket Points Table.

There was a totally unexpected victory. I'm not sure if anyone thought India would be able to win today's match. At least I didn't think India would win. Great strategy, and great batting. Although Rahane could not succeed with his bat, he succeeded as a captain. I don't know if anyone would like to see Virat Kohli as captain after this series. However, today's match was very exciting. I am happy to enjoy such an exciting Test match.

World Test Championship points table looks really tight. Right now, four teams are in contention for the final at Lord's - India, Australia, England and New Zealand. For India, the next series is at home and that gives them an advantage. I guess all the other teams are having away series. BTW, I would love a final between India and New Zealand. That looks probable as well, looking at the points table.

Watching on telly from somewhere else..

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Okay ladies i think Indian team going to Lords for finals. Hope its not too early to say as series against England coming up for Indians but its home series and they need to win only 2 out of 4 games.