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India close in on England

archie mac

International Coach
Don't worry the Aussies will put things right this summer (if they can remember how to play Test cricket after all this time)
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Am hoping that the Indians might put the Aussies right TBH. :p

Seriously, I really, really do believe a repeat in some way, shape or form of 2003\04 is not OOTQ.
 

pasag

RTDAS
Am hoping that the Indians might put the Aussies right TBH. :p

Seriously, I really, really do believe a repeat in some way, shape or form of 2003\04 is not OOTQ.
It is imo, because of the one tour match. Just not enough for them to get used to the conditions plus it's at the end of a long season for them and they'll be gone imo. Just rotten scheduling to blame really.
 

chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
Side are starting to get used to the lack of build up for Test series. Its been like this for 2-3 years and reducing for the last 10 years. Its nothing new these days to play a 3-day match and head straight into a Test Match. Also alot of home players don't play many domestic matches either so you generally find both a slightly less match harden.

Also with the number of matches played these days only new players wouldn't have played on similar pitches. Also with the roads you have these days, there is less difference between pitches around the world. If you have seen one road you have seen them all.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Australia have better bowling and better batting than 2003. India have similar bowling and worse batting. Kumble is slightly worse, the pace is slightly better (the pace guys didn't do badly in 2003, remember AA?). But the batting is worse.

Combine all that with virtually no warm ups, and 3-0 Australia IMO.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Australia have better bowling and better batting than 2003. India have similar bowling and worse batting. Kumble is slightly worse, the pace is slightly better (the pace guys didn't do badly in 2003, remember AA?). But the batting is worse.

Combine all that with virtually no warm ups, and 3-0 Australia IMO.
IMO there's not much between Australia's bowling of 2003\04 and now. I'm not so sure about the batting but I wasn't really commenting on that. And as I say, I hope we're on track to see the same Indian line-up of 2003\04 do the same job of exposing an Australian attack.

Clark of 2007\08 is probably = Gillespie of 2003\04. The rest are all untried, as they were in 2003\04. Granted, Tait looks to be a better prospect than Williams ever was, but you never know, do you?
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
The fact that England are still 2nd in the rankings shows how flawed the system is, imo. Presumably our position owes much to the wins over SA & Aus in 2005, but we all know how different the current side is to that one.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
I don't think anyone takes the things seriously.

How different it'd be with the real championship (as opposed to ratings) format I'd like I don't know.

Either way, having failed to beat Sri Lanka at home and lost to India, we can not possibly claim to be #2 IMO. Just as we couldn't claim to be #1 after 1971 for the same reason.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Australia have better bowling and better batting than 2003. India have similar bowling and worse batting. Kumble is slightly worse, the pace is slightly better (the pace guys didn't do badly in 2003, remember AA?). But the batting is worse.

Combine all that with virtually no warm ups, and 3-0 Australia IMO.
Yeah I unfortunately get the feeling we'll cop a hiding this summer. The scheduling has a big part to play, and overall I think Australia are comfortably the more consistent team.

I can see India being quite competitive in a couple of tests, but overall I see Australia winning 2-0 or 3-0 out of the 4 tests. I hope I'm wrong obviously.
 
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Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
That's true. I remember plenty of 4-0 predictions on CW (I actually signed up to CW during the 4th test in Sydney, but went back in the tour thread and was astounded at how confident many people were of 4-0).

A hell of a lot will depend on India's seamers IMO. I hope Zaheer isn't driven into the ground with workload. Ravi Shastri mentioned something about him needing a rest soon. I hope he's rested for some of these ODIs.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
A hell of a lot will depend on India's seamers IMO. I hope Zaheer isn't driven into the ground with workload. Ravi Shastri mentioned something about him needing a rest soon. I hope he's rested for some of these ODIs.
He is not going to play in the Twenty20 Championship - that is his rest.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
That's true. I remember plenty of 4-0 predictions on CW (I actually signed up to CW during the 4th test in Sydney, but went back in the tour thread and was astounded at how confident many people were of 4-0).
That thread was the making of CW according to quite a few good judges.

But yeah, I thought the exact same thing (this was back in t' day when I used to read pretty much all *Official* tour threads), the only person who even though India had a prayer was dear old "amits" (:laugh::lol: ) and he was shouted down well of course.

Mind, fairly similar things were said about The Ashes 2005, at least in the educated circles rather than the rabble that drummed-up the frenzy. :p
 

Johnners

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I'm actually feeling a little nervous going into this summer. It's the first time we've been without McGrath & Warne since that 03/04 series and we know how impotent our bowling was then. Whilst i believe our attack now will be better than the 03/04 attack, i'm still nervous.

That said, our batting imo is definetly going to be stronger, and if our batsmen can get off to a good start, hopefully some of their confidence will rub off onto the bowlers, and if that happens, i doubt we'll lose a test, and i see the result being 2-0 or 3-0 to Australia.
 

R_D

International Debutant
Yeah I unfortunately get the feeling we'll cop a hiding this summer. The scheduling has a big part to play, and overall I think Australia are comfortably the more consistent team.

I can see India being quite competitive in a couple of tests, but overall I see Australia winning 2-0 or 3-0 out of the 4 tests. I hope I'm wrong obviously.
You should have nothing to worry about..... the oman is leaving Aus during the summer.
I won't be in Aus to watch the matches so they'll do quite well. Thats just how it was last time too.. soon as i landed back in Aus.. they copped a hiding in the ODi Finals.:ph34r:
 

Turbinator

Cricketer Of The Year
A Very Very Special series coming up from a Very Very Special man.

India to win against Australia, or atleast draw the series, you heard here first ;).
 

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