Australia's Need, India's Riches

[Top_Cat]

Nah Pujara can, or has the ability to.

Only by comparison to his peers, tbh.

 

[Austerlitz]

Chappell's dead on about our fast bowling,total drought.If we had a great fast bowler in our current team in the steyn class we would go straight from very good to great team.

About the batting i'll relax,sharma,kohli and pujara will be all be great players.
But we need to find match winning opener to replace sehwag.I'm sure we can find a decent guy at 6 with pujara at 3,kohli4.sharma 5.A finisher...hopefully not raina.Neede opener and 6th spot player.Little hope on fast bowlers unless low level pitches are improved.

 

[Austerlitz]

Only by comparison to his peers, tbh.

Pujara will be just as good as dravid.Sounds ridiculous now but...i somehow know.

 

[Austerlitz]

Indeed. I always thought the problem was that we've missed an entire 'generation' of batsmen who have failed to really kick on or progress to the heights climbed by our previous greats.

Australia will recover ,they always do.Coz u guys can produce fast bolwers.

 

[GotSpin]

Australia will recover ,they always do.Coz u guys can produce fast bolwers.

Depends how much damage the selectors and CA can do beforehand. No doubt the current fascination with 2020 will put our cricket back a few years

 

[Daemon]

Yeh, really has highlighted as a difference between India and Australia that which is really a similarity. One side is doing well, the other side is doing poorly but in both sides, the replacements haven't been good enough to knock the incumbents out of the team.

This is why I reckon India are in real trouble, much like Australia, once the big names retire. Just like the new crop of Aussie bats, very few of the names mooted as the next generation by Chappell is, prima facie, of the type who could bat out a session if the ball is hooping. Can hit long balls and out-Dilscoop anyone, though.

awta for now at least. Would reserve judgement for after the WI series once we've seen how all the young batsmen (except Pujara) cope.

Have a feeling that in a couple of years time Kohli, Pujara and Yuvraj will be in the test side replacing Dravid, Sachin and Laxman, which on paper seems all right but may not be so, especially overseas. Mukund, while an exciting prospect will probably not get a chance since Sehwag has still got years left in him and Vijay is the first choice back up in case of an injury to Sehwag or Gambhir. Unless Gambhir drops to 3 to allow him to open I don't see him getting games until Sehwag retires. Raina, unless he has some miraculous change after which he can cope with quality fast bowling, is the last in the pecking order for me, even after Rohit Sharma. He got out to Kallis twice iirc in SA and I fear to think what he'll do against guys like Tremlett and Morkel. He's had quite a number of chances and he failed to capitalise even in his home turf against NZ where he averaged something like single digits. He's also been out caught 10/11 times in his career which shows he has some serious problems.

Overall our batsmen will cope very well at home but how they do overseas is something thats hard to predict until we see more of them.

 

[SamSawnoff]

Don't think age reduces your catching ability though.

It looks pretty bleak for Dravid. The difference between him and Ponting despite their similar averages in recent times, is that Ponting has manged to string a few games where he has looked good before getting out but Dravid has really looked awful of late.

I think there is very little difference between Punter and Dravid. They both have slowed reflexes and proper pace bowling will be difficult for them. Punter looked pretty awful every single innings in the Ashes. And in the World Cup, apart from against India and there he was more cautious than I've seen him.

 

[SamSawnoff]

Depends how much damage the selectors and CA can do beforehand. No doubt the current fascination with 2020 will put our cricket back a few years

Most of the bowlers that we hope will be good are very young and it takes time to become a proper test class bowler. I can't see the Aussies being top of the tree again for a very long time.

 

[benchmark00]

When I read the title I thought this thread was going to be on **** fans

 

[vcs]

When I read the title I thought this thread was going to be on **** fans

We'll give you Jono.

 

[benchmark00]

We'll give you Jono.

No deal!

 

[SamSawnoff]

Indeed. I always thought the problem was that we've missed an entire 'generation' of batsmen who have failed to really kick on or progress to the heights climbed by our previous greats.

We haven't exactly got a current generation of bowlers that scream top-class. There isn't a proper attack leader that you can build a bowling unit around and without that, what do you do? Johnson certainly isn't an attack leader.

The Indian team get by and nearly always have gotten by without brilliant seam bowlers by playing to their strengths but what do the Aussies do if they have got no really quality seam bowlers?.

 

[Austerlitz]

This is why i feel southafrica can really dominate if they get their mental issues right,in the next 5 yrs.
India will lose a number of big guns and because we can't produce match winning fast bowlers we will always remain good/very good[on form] team but not great.Plus we will have to rebuild.
Australia will take 4-5 yrs to rebuild upto full strength.
England have the other window of oppurtunity.But they are poor in the subcontinent,plus lack great players.
West indies and pak fighting for survival.
NZ stagnant.
Sri lanka no entity in tests,and will soon be in a deep hole when sanga and jaya and dilshan go.They already have no strike bowlers.
Sad state of affairs in the cricket most teams weak.Still backing south africa to fulfill their potential in about a couple yrs time .Now that they have kirsten and donald.

 

[TumTum]

I think there is very little difference between Punter and Dravid. They both have slowed reflexes and proper pace bowling will be difficult for them. Punter looked pretty awful every single innings in the Ashes. And in the World Cup, apart from against India and there he was more cautious than I've seen him.

True, but he has looked good in many other series. Such as in India or Hobart against Pak or in 1st Test against WI or Ashes 09 or against SA 09 etc. Even in the 2011 Ashes Ponting did make that 50 where he looked gold.

The point is he has had periods where he looked good and bad, but even in his good looking phases he managed to get out. For Dravid however, he hasn't looked good in ages (apart from the home series against NZ).

 

[vic_orthdox]

I understand why India are persevering with Dravid, with the big series coming up against England. Especially with injuries and form hampering their permanent number 6. They would be happy to put someone else in his place if Pujara, Raina, Yuvraj or whoever had secured the number 6 spot already, but they haven't, and you don't want people trying to find their way in the game in two spots in your top 6.

 

[weldone]

I understand why India are persevering with Dravid, with the big series coming up against England. Especially with injuries and form hampering their permanent number 6. They would be happy to put someone else in his place if Pujara, Raina, Yuvraj or whoever had secured the number 6 spot already, but they haven't, and you don't want people trying to find their way in the game in two spots in your top 6.

Completely agree.

I shall be closely following Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli's performances in the current WI series. If we have to get rid of Dravid, we can have the following batting lineup: Gambhir, Sehwag, Vijay, Tendulkar, Laxman, Pujara/Kohli. The other option will be to push Tendulkar and Laxman one step up each and have the following lineup: Gambhir, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman, Pujara, Kohli. I think Tendulkar might look forward to the no. 3 spot at this point in his career when he is looking to build really big innings.

But the point remains that at least two of Vijay, Kohli and Pujara needs to fire and needs to fire big time before we can even think of getting rid of Dravid (provided Dravid doesn't get back his touch till then). The picture will be slightly clearer after this WI tour. WI might not be a top side, but their pace bowling department can't be underestimated. A solid and consistent performance in this series will count for goods.

 

[Jono]

I can guarantee you Sachin will not move from the #4 spot whatever happens.

 

[centurymaker]

He prefers the even numbers.haha

 

[Furball]

I can guarantee you Sachin will not move from the #4 spot whatever happens.

Yeah, he's never ever played at number 3 in his Test career to date (which I found a bit suprising, I'd have thought he might have played a few Tests there).

If anything Laxman is the short term replacement at 3 for Dravid if he gets punted soon.

 

[silentstriker]

The article was fairly tame by his standards, I reckon. The Chappell family are so zealously pro-youth, they probably reckon the old farts hanging on to 3-5 in the line-up are the reasons why no-one has nailed down the number 6 slot i.e. no incentive to be awesome in that spot because no matter what you do, you're not going to move up the order until they retire.

Plus, the concepts of paying one's dues and waiting your turn are anathema to those pricks. If you have to work hard at your game over time just to stay in the team, you probably weren't good enough to begin with and why don't you **** off so the guy who was immediately good enough can take his rightful spot? You're either a gun or you're not.

I really really really hope that's not a reasoning because that quite possibly makes Ian Chappell the stupidest person in cricket. Yes, you're a fringe players and you're not going to try to be awesome to make the Indian test team and be a superstar and make millions but instead would rather toil in first class obscurity because a spot higher up isn't open? If any one thinks like that, they need to be admitted stat.