*Official* India Tour of Australia 2018/19

[TheJediBrah]

Even if only Kohli is taken away, India will struggle big time. My point was that Australia's fall is so steep when compared to quality of cricketers produced by them just a decade ago. The asian teams struggle outside asia as much as non asian teams in asia. There is no absolute stand out team today like Aus was a decade ago. Having said that, it is fair to say that India is the best test team in the world because of the ability to maul all opponents in favorable circumstances(which no one else is as good) while also being only as abysmal as any one else abroad.

All true enough, I'll add to the bolded though, that non-Asian teams seem to be having an especially tough time in Asia lately due to a seemingly increase in the prevalence of pitch doctoring, specifically in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Maybe it's always happened there, but I feel like it's been more prevalent over the last 5 years or so. (probably in combination with poor batting techniques in recent times tbf)

Also I think it's easier for Asian teams to doctor pitches to suit them/hurt the opposition. Just go full dustbowl. The other way around though not so much. I'm not an expert curator or anything of the sort but I'd think it's easier to dry your pitch out to maximise it's utility to spinners than it would be to try and make it really, really fast and really, really bouncy. If it's even possible.

 

[h_hurricane]

Yeah I've analysed this before. India are in a very fortunate position in that no one is likely to even challenge them at home, because the other top 5-6 Test teams are for the most part non Asian (except Pak, who they don't play anyway) and will struggle in Indian conditions, whereas those familiar in Asian conditions (Sl, Ban, Afg) are crap teams, relatively speaking. They'll also tend to get easy "away" wins in other Asian countries for the same reason.

Compare that to Eng, SA, Aus, even NZ, and all teams are pretty challenging in each other's conditions.

I think the present Pak team will get defeated pretty comfortably in India if they played here. The team of 2-3 years back, with Misbah and Younis could have been different though. We are going through a period of less competitive cricket generally. Almost can predict the result of every test series before hand (if not the margin, at least the result). Hope this changes soon.

 

[Daemon]

If you leave a pitch unattended with only the basic curation, you get something closer to many SC wickets.

If you put tons of effort into it (including the ability to lift the entire thing out of the ground) you get Australian wickets.

Hence Australians are the real pitch doctors.

Yet another emphatic victory for Daemon.

 

[Borges]

Almost can predict the result of every test series before hand (if not the margin, at least the result). Hope this changes soon.

Zimbabwe have done well in Bangladesh.
I think England will certainly win in Sri Lanka.
The Kiwis have a reasonable chance in the UAE.

All teams, sub-continental or otherwise, would do better at home when they do not try to doctor the pitches. England in India or India in England for example.
Pitch doctoring tends to be counter productive: Australia in India or India in South Africa, for example.

 

[h_hurricane]

Zimbabwe have done well in Bangladesh.
I think England will certainly win in Sri Lanka.
The Kiwis have a reasonable chance in the UAE.

All teams, sub-continental or otherwise, would do better at home when they do not try to doctor the pitches. England in India or India in England for example.
Pitch doctoring tends to be counter productive: Australia in India or India in South Africa, for example.

Yes, Zim's victory came out of nowhere. England and NZ should win their respective series. Pakistan and SL have been below par and poor respectively in test cricket for a while now and have not found replacements for retired world class batsmen. With Herath retiring, SL is in for bigger trouble.

So true about the pitch doctoring part.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Pitch doctoring tends to be counter productive

Yeah, that's a no from me dog. Pitch doctoring is very productive. A few rare incidences of it backfiring doesn't change that.

 

[Gomez656]

No sir NZ will not win test series in Dubai

 

[Gomez656]

This thread of India tour of aus

Aus t20i team
Aus vs India T20I

Australia's T20 squad vs India: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D`Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa

Above team plays 3 t20i vs India on Nov 21-Nov 23 & Nov 25,2018

Good idea to rested test regular players

 

[Gomez656]

So Ben McDermont Run out specialist makes it in the team Hun!!
Poor guy was run out in all three t20i vs Pak in dubai

 

[GotSpin]

GotSpin seemed hurt that someone from another nation attacked Australia though. Interesting stuff, I just wanted to know more about his feelings.

Not at all. Just seemed fairly obvious that if you take away a teams two best bats that theyre really going to struggle

 

[Daemon]

Not at all. Just seemed fairly obvious that if you take away a teams two best bats that theyre really going to struggle

Very true. Look at England for example. If you take Foakes and Curran away they're nothing.

 

[GotSpin]

All true enough, I'll add to the bolded though, that non-Asian teams seem to be having an especially tough time in Asia lately due to a seemingly increase in the prevalence of pitch doctoring, specifically in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Maybe it's always happened there, but I feel like it's been more prevalent over the last 5 years or so. (probably in combination with poor batting techniques in recent times tbf)

Also I think it's easier for Asian teams to doctor pitches to suit them/hurt the opposition. Just go full dustbowl. The other way around though not so much. I'm not an expert curator or anything of the sort but I'd think it's easier to dry your pitch out to maximise it's utility to spinners than it would be to try and make it really, really fast and really, really bouncy. If it's even possible.

Nah disagree. Subcontinent pitches should be low and slow. Dustbowls only help our spinners and neutralise their batsmen

 

[TheJediBrah]

Nah disagree. Subcontinent pitches should be low and slow. Dustbowls only help our spinners and neutralise their batsmen

Doesn't work out that way though. If you want to look at it from an Aus point of view just look at the most recent tours of SL and Bang. Openly doctored pitches that exploited Aus' weakness against spin. As a result an inferior SL team won 3-0, and a vastly inferior Bang drew 1-1. They were not your average SL and Bang pitches either, they were openly made more spin friendly.

Pune 2017 test where India crumbled to Sok was an aberration, not the norm.

 

[OverratedSanity]

All the matches that India have lost at home over the last few years have been dustbowls. Pune vs Australia, both tests v England in 2012. The only exceptions are the occasions where Steyn went nuts. GotSpin is spot on that dustbowls often help the touring side.

Australia's weakness isn't necessarily a full on square turner. It's a slow pitch with decent turn (aka a typical subcontinent deck that requires no real pitch doctoring).

 

[weldone]

Good squad.

Will Hanuma Vihari be of any use in Australian conditions?

 

[Bijed]

All the matches that India have lost at home over the last few years have been dustbowls. Pune vs Australia, both tests v England in 2012. The only exceptions are the occasions where Steyn went nuts. GotSpin is spot on that dustbowls often help the touring side

Although, really this one wasn't down to the pitch helping the Aus spinners so much as the Indian batsmen just couldn't comprehend the fact that the pitch was helpful and Steve O'Keefe still ​wasn't turning the ball

 

[TheJediBrah]

All the matches that India have lost at home over the last few years have been dustbowls. Pune vs Australia, both tests v England in 2012. The only exceptions are the occasions where Steyn went nuts. GotSpin is spot on that dustbowls often help the touring side.

Australia's weakness isn't necessarily a full on square turner. It's a slow pitch with decent turn (aka a typical subcontinent deck that requires no real pitch doctoring).

You are getting confused because you are looking only at India, who have generally been the stronger team in normal Asian conditions in those series. Hence why doctoring dustbowls hasn't necessarily helped them. Because they don't need to do it to win and it just brings the opposition into the game.

I've specifically been talking about SL and Bang and not India for this reason. They haven't been the better sides, dustbowls helps them win. It's as simple as that.

Look at aus tour of India 2004. Aus were the stronger team, even in normal Indian conditions. The one Test India won that series? On a dustbowl. Because they were the weaker team.

I should have been more specific earlier saying that doctoring dustbowls is specifically effective for the weaker Asian teams. Which is why I have been leaving India out of it.

 

[vcs]

Did they doctor pitches against SA also earlier this year? Because this SA team is certainly no weaker than Australia's touring 2016 team. SL are weaker now than they were then.

 

[stephen]

Although, really this one wasn't down to the pitch helping the Aus spinners so much as the Indian batsmen just couldn't comprehend the fact that the pitch was helpful and Steve O'Keefe still ​wasn't turning the ball

I got a good chuckle out of this. It's funny because it's true.

That match was so great. Not least of which because Warne had to eat humble pie about O'Keefe.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Did they doctor pitches against SA also earlier this year? Because this SA team is certainly no weaker than Australia's touring 2016 team. SL are weaker now than they were then.

I didn't follow it as closely but from all accounts they absolutely did. There was a lot of discussion on here about it at the time. I don't know of SL even used a seam bowler in half the innings, and SAs star quicks bowled far less than you'd expect. That isn't proof in and of itself but it seemed that there was definitely some specifically deliberate pitch preparation going on.