*Official* VB Series - Australia, India & Zimbabwe

[amits]

with a hot discussion going on the ind-aus series and the TVS cup being over, i think this is the right time to start the series.

the series will be starting in less than 2 months from now.

any predictions ?

mine india will win it beating australia 2-1 in the finals.

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

As you say, the series is two months away!! This is ridiculous.

[Eclipse]

lol it's a bit early amit's.

and BTW I know your a nice guy and all but did it ever occer to you that India just dont have as good a team man for man as Australia do and well all these predictions are well slightly insane.

[iamdavid]

Originally posted by amits
with a hot discussion going on the ind-aus series and the TVS cup being over, i think this is the right time to start the series.

the series will be starting in less than 2 months from now.

any predictions ?

mine india will win it beating australia 2-1 in the finals.

You are a very optimistic fella arent you

Just let me fill you in on a few figures

India have played 28 matches in Australia , they have won 3 of them. The last of those wins was 24 years ago (Kapils day).
Last time India came out here I remember the hype about them having 4 people who averaged over 50 in tests & they're experienced spin attack & how they would be ultra competitive.

I didnt beleive it , even at age 12 , mailnly because I knew India played on slow low surfaces.

Now if the India side of 1999/2000 couldnt do it then there is certainly nothing to convince me that the 2003/04 India side will do any better.
Sehwag will be found out terribly , his fault with the back foot not moving across is a schoolboy sort of thing , Lee/Gillespie will expose that as they did to Dion Ebrahim who has a near identical flaw.

Zaheer is simply not accurate enough to pose a threat out here.

Harbhajan & Kumble will get no help at all (except maybe sydney) & therefore will do nothing at all.

Patel is a poor batsman by international standards , the tail looks very long with him at 7.

The feilding is to inconsistent.

Only Tendulkar is a proven performer with the bat in Australian conditions , Ganguly & Dravid failed miserably last time , although they are better players now it would not entirelly suprise me if they did it again.

They have a chance in the ODI's I reckon , a slight one but still a chance.
Tell me Amits , if India cant win in their home conditions against an Australian team with its best 4 bowlers injured & 1 one of its frontline batsman , then how are they going to win against a full strength Aussie team on home turf??

They have won 26/73 ODI's against Australia , and 18/50 in Australia (lost all of them against AUS last time)

Also I think we should start making official threads about 2 weeks from the start of a series rather than a month or 2 , it just clogs up the board otherwise.

[amits]

the reason to start this thread early was that the india in australia thread was also started 2 months earlier than the series :P

the series starts on 9 jan and its already 19 nov.

also david, lets not discuss test matches here. use it for odi discussion

guys, i am not optimistic. its just that i know the full strengths of the indian team.

if u all claim that australia were weakened, then i say that india were also weakened. india were withough ganguly and nehra almost throughout the series.

[Neil Pickup]

Australia had none of their bowling attack!

If India can't chase 236 against that at Eden Gardens I cannot see any way they'll make anything down under against McGrath, Gillespie and Lee...

[iamdavid]

Originally posted by amits
if u all claim that australia were weakened, then i say that india were also weakened. india were withough ganguly and nehra almost throughout the series.

Mate India are gonna lose :P

Fair enough , you los tyou're second choice seamer as well as you're captain/third best batsman

We lost

Our Best (arguably the greatest ever) spinner to suspension

Our no 1 strike bowler (second fastest in the world)

Our no 2 strike bowler

Our best seamer (the backbone of our attack)

Our experienced number 5/2nd spinner

Queensland seamer Noffke who would have played if not for injury.

So I think we were rather more handicapped there , yet even with the tournament held in India we won convincingly on all but 1 of those occasions.

I reckon the reason you are optimistic is that you are Indian (see the link , Indian team , Indian , Indian team , Indian:duh: :P )

[Mr. P]

Originally posted by iamdavid
Mate India are gonna lose :P

Fair enough , you los tyou're second choice seamer as well as you're captain/third best batsman

We lost

Our Best (arguably the greatest ever) spinner to suspension

Our no 1 strike bowler (second fastest in the world)

Our no 2 strike bowler

Our best seamer (the backbone of our attack)

Our experienced number 5/2nd spinner

Queensland seamer Noffke who would have played if not for injury.

So I think we were rather more handicapped there , yet even with the tournament held in India we won convincingly on all but 1 of those occasions.

I reckon the reason you are optimistic is that you are Indian (see the link , Indian team , Indian , Indian team , Indian:duh: :P )

Add to that Darren Lehmann and you'll find India have a MUCH better position than us.

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Originally posted by Mr. Ponting
Add to that Darren Lehmann and you'll find India have a MUCH better position than us.

When he said:

"Our experienced number 5/2nd spinner"

I'm sure he was referring to Lehmann.

[Mr. P]

Originally posted by Mr Mxyzptlk
When he said:

"Our experienced number 5/2nd spinner"

I'm sure he was referring to Lehmann.

OK, I thought he meant number 5 bowler/2nd spinner as MacGill, but maybe you are right. Although we did lose MacGill and he is certainly more a 2nd spinner than Lehmann so I rephrase that

'Add to that Stuey MacGill'

[iamdavid]

I did mean Lehmann , in ODI's he fills the second spinner role , MacGill never plays ODI's.

[PY]

Can't believe there's thread for this and the first game is 7 weeks away :rolleyes:

[V Reddy]

Originally posted by PY
Can't believe there's thread for this and the first game is 7 weeks away :rolleyes:

It would be better if we also start the Ind-Pak series thread which is only 12 weeks away :P .

I feel too that India has a great chance of winning the series. The other team is Zim and so India is pretty sure of winning 4 matches in league stage which means their confidence will not be so down as it was last time. Last time around India had only three batsman- Dravid,Sachin and Ganguly. Laxman was in horrible form and Martin and Kanitkar aren't that good. Sehwag, Yuvraj , Kaif, Badani , Mongia , etc,. are much better than their preceeders . Go India

[iamdavid]

Originally posted by amits
guys, i am not optimistic. its just that i know the full strengths of the indian team.

:P :O :P :rolleyes:

[NikhilN]

when dose it start?