Topic: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] - page 876. (Read 152926 times)

Well that's PCB for you. They surely know how to waste a talent. Apart from Babar Azam another name comes to my mind is Azhar Ali, he's terrific batman as well.

I watched the match after the Tea session of the last day. It was an impressive knock by this young man. And at some point when the commentator said it's after 12 years, I got curious and googled about the guy. Indeed, this guy is a talent and all wasted in first division.

Only two players has better first division career than this guys and one of them is Steven Smith. How could a board ignore such a player and recruit players who are not even near to his talent. In Pakistan team after Inzamam, Younis, Yousuf who shown their talent? Babar Azam. Who else?

Anyway, I thought this guy and the other half centurion guy will take Pakistan to the port and will celebrate a draw, so I placed a good amount in draw and lost it LOL

Bitcoin price is over $28 and considering the price it was over $250 which was gone once the blackcaps were breaking the partnership. Still I had a little hope that the two tell enders (last wicket partnership which was able to survive 8+ overs) may save my investment but Santner didn't let it happen. Williamson was worried before this over.

There are better players out there but talking about the particular spot like no 6 and 7 there are not many names in the list especially the complete all-rounder like Hardik Pandya. Hanuma Vihari is a young talent who is perfect for playing a test match and he also proved his batting ability in the few chances he got in the past.So needs to be given more chances to make him complete test cricket all-rounder on any playing conditions.

KL Rahul is a very exciting batsman, but he needs to improve on his maturity level. And regarding Rohit Sharma, he is like the no.2 player in the Indian team and he is the automatic choice when Virat Kohli is not available as the captain. BTW, I am not a fan of Hanuma Vihari. He has some good performances to his name, but there are more deserving players out there.

KL Rahul is most likely to play better in the shorter form of cricket so it is better to let it be then replacing Mayank with Rohit is the best choice now because Rohit is more consistent when opens the inning which could be continued in the test format as well. Vihari is a decent batsman who can fit into multiple batting positions so keeping him in the squad and encouraging with more chances can help him to grow up further so in the long run which can be really good for team India.

I was implying that PCB ruined his career with the petty politics and completely ignored him for 1 decade but he's still fighting despite his age.

I am not against favoritism overall if players performing every now n then but if any player failing on regular basis then its a red flag. You are giving long rope to some players and keeping some out because they failed couple of times. (Karun,Ashwin,Hanuma, Bhuvi etc)

Rahul already got countless chances at the top order at-least 13ish tests (26 innings) continuously despite failing in majority of games, his only 100 came when team didn't have anything to lose. If in next game KL Rahul gets another chance at the top order then its possible that Rohit might replace Hanuma Vihari at the middle order because he's considered a blue eyed boy. Its also possible that this could click in favor of team but not fair in long run when selecting team. I know Hanuma Vihari didn't have big numbers to show but he always batted according to team requirement. He was asked to open in tough condition when every opener failed to perform and even batted down the order when team needed, so far he proved himself worthy at the number 6 in his 10ish test career. 

I agree we have fair amount of players contesting for top order, (Mayank-Shaw are out of form) Rahul failed so far and Rohit is yet to tested in SENA countries, that's why i want to see Rohit at top order in the next test and prove himself if he's capable to bat against new ball or not. He did exceptionally well in sub-continent but he's not alone and list is freaking long for Indian batsmen. 

Pujara and Rahane are players who are more suited for the test format, while KL Rahul is more suited for shorter formats such as T20Is and ODIs. But I agree that there is a lot of competition for every slot in the national team. The player pool is huge and there is no dearth of talented players. And this means that despite having a lot of talent, if you don't enjoy the patronship of Kohili/Shastri, you may not feature in the team.

Yeah Smith does seem to be fighting himself in this series. I think a lot has to also do with the hype around Smith before the series with many saying that he is primed ready to make a lot of runs when in fact its been the opposite. I think this can also play on his mind as he is expected to perform and score hundreds all the time, well that's what most want from him and when he is in a slump like he is now it takes a lot to get out of it. There is no doubt that it can all change but right now Ashwin and the Indian team do have him covered. It will be interesting to see how Smith goes in his home test match in Sydney as that's where he could break out of this form slump he is in.

Smith is struggling against Ashwin and he himself admitted this. Check this link out.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.hindustantimes.com/cricket/no-spinner-has-done-that-to-me-in-my-career-steve-smith-narrates-how-he-has-let-ashwin-dictate-terms-in-test-series/story-Pzh3jqOwI3cxsXHoJoXAXI_amp.html

Ashwin is a critical part of the test squad and Smith himself admitting this proves that. Great to see him performing so well consistently despite getting criticised heavily due to mankading etc in the last couple of years.

Currently Indian teams preforming completely opposing as they was doing in past right now bowlers doing great job and batsmen and fielders doing completely bad job even these two was their weapons in past if they able to handle some good in batting then surely they can win this series because after watching this test my feeling is Australian completely out of touch and they can lost this series which could be great win for Indians without any star player.

I think there needs to be made a balance in the team obviously dropping Pujara and Rahane to fit in KL Rahul in the side is a bit foolishness. But keeping a player in the squad for no reason doesn't makes sense. Moreover KL Rahul isn't the only example there are many other players Karun Nair is also such an example. It's just too much competition in the team to choose the best among best. Even Hanuma Vihari has similar statistics to that of Rahul. I think it's just that everyone has their own favourites including us and the selectors.

Indian bowlers did exceptionally well in this test series along with contribution from every bowlers at any ends as well as at any stage of the match. Only the fielding and batting was the issue in the first match but they managed to overcome on the second match. Hope the new bowler also will do the same in the next match.

You forgot the start, Ajinkya Rahane giving the ball to Ravichandran Ashwin in the 10th over and he changed the tempo of the match by picking the wickets of Matthew Wade and Steven Smith in quick succession and it completely opened the match, Mohammed Siraj impressed me a lot with his wonderful debut bowling and he was troubling the batsman.

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Umesh Yadav is injured and hopefully we will see another debut in the next match and hopefully i would like to see Nataraj making his debut but i think he is not picked for the squad and he is staying to help the batsman in the nets and hence the opportunity goes to Navdeep Saini.

Not only batsmen but also blowers did their job in the 2nd test match because new bowler Siraj utilized his bowling skills on Australian pitches. Gill, Jadeja and Rahane played some brilliant knock in order to defend the Ausis, otherwise, it is impossible for the Indians to level the series. Overall Indian did their part to level the series.

Pakistan lost the game but they fought well there, at least for draw if not for win. 2 previous visitors India and Windies lost badly there. I hope now PCB and misbah (PCB especially) give some respect to Fawad Alam. He's debuted in 2009 and played only 6 tests so far (2 100s).... you can imagine the drama here.

Pakistan lost the first test match today against NZ. For a moment i thought that  Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah will save the match as they resisted for nearly 8 overs against the NZ bowling. Pakistan need to improve their batting, bowling and especially fielding if they want better results in next matches.

This is 3rd tour for KL Rahul, his first tour was way back in 2014-15. In last away season 2018-19 Indian management gave him complete season despite his failures. He failed in SA, England , somehow he managed to score ton in the last game, it was lost game so this ton doesn't count much but because of this 100 he again got chance in Australia and failed miserably. Just to give you example of his backing, Kohli-Shashtri dropped Pujara, Rahane and Bhuvi in few games just to fit Rahul-Pandaya in the team, result India failed to win in SA and England, India was supposed to win in SA 2-1 and 3-2 in the England.

Burns is out for good.. if Warner coming back then who will open the inning with him? Wade and Warner both are left hand batsmen so 2 lefty opener is not a good idea. Harris is also left handed so Will Pucovski should get a chance and move Wade to down the order.

Pucovski didn't made a lot of runs during the warmup matches. But given the horrible state of the Australian batting lineup, any new addition should be welcome. What bothers me is the poor run from Steve Smith. Just like India, who are heavily dependent on Virat Kohli, the Australians are also over dependent on Steve Smith. But the Indians were able to win a test match even without Kohli, while the Australians lost despite Smith playing for them.

For me it was Gill, Jadeja and Rahane who were responsible for the second test win. Plus the fielding on Indian side did improve from the previous test. Bowlers from both side bowled brilliantly but indian batsmen changed the game.

Actually both the Indian and Australian bowlers did well. The difference is that the Indian middle and lower order added crucial runs, while the Australian batsmen generally failed to make significant contributions. Rahane's innings was obviously the game changer, but we can't ignore the contributions made by Ravindra Jadeja as well. He made the runs when the team need them the most.