God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[Gointocarlton]

I am no cricket expert by a long way, but I LOVE Test Cricket. Don't watch the other stuff unless I'm desperate. Great result by India. Best effort I have ever, ever seen from a touring Indian team. Just kept producing. Tough, determined and so much better than our blokes. Even their 2nd stringers!
Given all of the above I do believe however we contributed a fair bit to the result by;
1. Bad selections
2. Bad coaching
3. Bad captaining
Our arrogance in the past was  tolerated when we had a multitude generational greats playing. Hell we were so good we used to rotate our bowlers between tests. Now I reckon there are about 5 players total who get a game.
Time to get rid of the deadwood and find more Greene's and Pucovski's
Still a great effort by India. Amazing. Wish I had of got on them in this last test.

x2

[dodge]

Great final session to watch.  Great that India decided to chase the runs - meant the game was alive until the last couple of overs and that all possible results were still on the table.

Overall the series was a good one to watch/follow with no side out of a game, apart from the India brain fade in Adelaide.  Pity the pitches were so placid.

[Professer E]

I think that the bowling performance in Adelaide covered the fact that we were behind in basically every game and the chances of winning the series were actually slim.  Basically because we never picked the right side.

The side never delivered on the sum of its parts,  it was always making up for shortcomings, which left us chasing all the time.

We never had a successful opening pair,  Burns Warner Harris failed as openers, Pucovski rode luck and natural ability to post a score.  Why pick a half fit bloke off zero match play,  who's ego drove that howler of a call Alfie?

The middle order was very fragile and didn't build on what Smith and Marrus contributed (normally a recovery from a poor start) .  Green and Paine did OK with the bat,  but scores weren't pushed out to good totals.  We never had enough runs.  Lower order batting was also poor.

The bowling was patchy,  with bewildering plans in place and WTF lines and lengths employed.  Starc, going at 4 an over and not maintaining pressure was a real problem.  Needs to find the ability to swung the ball again or be replaced.  Lyon tried to be too cute with???  lines,  although Blocker's assessment of what constitutes a shot didn't help.  Note,  playing with the bat behind the pad is not a legitimate shot,  it's a bluffing tactic used in the subcontinent against spinners.  Green's bowling was very disappointing,  reminds me of Watson.  Straight,  fast and meh.  He's coming back from injury but I didn't see any bite.    Why weren't the bowlers rotated when tired, - looks like more Langer bloodymindedness, which I believe contributed much to this poor performance.

Our fielding, normally a strong point,  was exceptionally bad.  Paine's keeping was messy and poor and we have too many slow fielders lacking mobility who don't turn half chances into wickets - Head,  Puckovski,  Harris - they all look too chunky and need to improve their mobility drastically. Head and Harris are serial droppers.

Hopefully some good will come out of the post Morten,  but in reality we never put out a good enough team to be this mob.  Too many passengers.

[DJC]

I think that we underestimated India and didn’t do our homework on the replacements, but what great depth India has!

They played brave cricket to go for the win and that let us in with a chance.  Sadly, our bowling tactics and field placings were lacking and hard to understand.  There’s a sameness about our bowling attack and Green’s inability to take a wicket didn’t help.

Integrity has become important since sandpapergate but, if it was applied across the board, Langer and the selectors would be lining up to hand in their letters of resignation.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Green doesn't look fit bowling wise either, very slow stilted run up and I think his back isn't right to bowl quick or for long periods.
Paines batting is just ok imo, you wouldn't pick him as a batsman only like you would Pant, Dekock, Butler,  and his keeping has to be A grade to make up for it and it wasn't this series. Less said about his tactics, field placings either, new batsman need attacking normal fields not everyone on the boundary ie Pant and he does the same with Stokes.It's like he has given up trying to get them out but is waiting for them to get themselves out and when it's the big game changing moments you have to be proactive and make things happen which he doesn't. Having a 4th slip after edge after edge went through isn't rocket science either. Rahane plays with a angled bat which demands a full slips cordon, not a massive gap between 3rd and Gully you could drive a truck through.

[Milhanna13]

Congratulations to India. They deserved to win with their concentration and effort.

Now, Australia: where do I start? I think I said a lot the other day.
[1] Coaching Staff and technology:
I have no idea what our coaching staff do, except that Langer is the boss. Fair enough: I'm not going to bag him as he has worked hard turning us around after we imploded a COUPLE of years back. He also has a reputation for success.
However:
(a) We never seem to have done enough homework on opposition players. Our field placings looks nice and standard, but the ball generally doesn't go to our players.
(b) If there is a crack or ridge in the pitch, we can never seem to find it. Not even with GPS and pitch radar. Not for the first time, our bowlers have come up short on the last day. The Indians found the cracks and the worn patches. We did not. We didn't even appear to be bowling towards them.
© I do not know how much technology we employ, or use in team meetings and training. But we need to do more, so we can actually bowl to where opponents might be vulnerable. We don't do that enough.
Note this test, where we had no idea where to bowl to Pant, Washington Sundar, Shadoul Thakur or Pujara. We have improved against Pujara, as he didn't dominate this series, but we still struggle to get him out. Pant loves playing us as we bowl to his strengths, not his weaknesses. Against other countries, he can't get a game.
(d) Our bowlers do not appear to have a plan, especially when they aren't getting wickets. That is not just the bowlers' fault, but something we need to train to improve.

Kerry OKeefe was on this from almost the start - he has been long praising the Indian's analystics department.  They had a set field and a set plan for every Aus batsman.  You are right in saying we just had the SAME field for every Indian batsman - doesnt look like much homework.  Esp considering many of our coaches and perifery (ie Ponting) have spent so much time in the IPL - surely we could get some first hand intel on all these guys?

The one thing that jumped out to me on the Amazon doc, was when Langer bought in an analtyics guy for the Ashes.  a) Why the fck did he have to bring one in, why isnt there one on staff, b) the Analytics guy basically said "hit the top of off" - no sht mate!!,  c) they didnt really seem to take him seriously

How many coaches, paid how much, with how much time with the team, and we dont seem to have decent plans for each batsman????

[Milhanna13]

The bowling was patchy,  with bewildering plans in place and WTF lines and lengths employed.  Starc, going at 4 an over and not maintaining pressure was a real problem.  Needs to find the ability to swung the ball again or be replaced.  Lyon tried to be too cute with???  lines,  although Blocker's assessment of what constitutes a shot didn't help.  Note,  playing with the bat behind the pad is not a legitimate shot,  it's a bluffing tactic used in the subcontinent against spinners.  Green's bowling was very disappointing,  reminds me of Watson.  Straight,  fast and meh.  He's coming back from injury but I didn't see any bite.    Why weren't the bowlers rotated when tired, - looks like more Langer bloodymindedness, which I believe contributed much to this poor performance.

Time to go back to Craig McDermott coaching philosophy - "pitch it up and let it swing".  Did we see a single aussie ball deviate in the air?  They are so concerned with banging it in just short of a length to dry up runs, they dont give it a chance to swing.  Green hoops it all over the place for WA, then pulls on the baggy green and is gun barrell straight.... im sure thats due to following the team rules and being to scared to pitch it up

[LP]

Time to go back to Craig McDermott coaching philosophy - "pitch it up and let it swing".

T20 has killed off swing bowling, there is hardly a single kid going around who can get it off dead straight!

Scrambled seam is the new black, but it's a very boring colour!

[ElwoodBlues1]

Time to go back to Craig McDermott coaching philosophy - "pitch it up and let it swing".  Did we see a single aussie ball deviate in the air?  They are so concerned with banging it in just short of a length to dry up runs, they dont give it a chance to swing.  Green hoops it all over the place for WA, then pulls on the baggy green and is gun barrell straight.... im sure thats due to following the team rules and being to scared to pitch it up

Our bowlers dont swing the ball like other teams, Starc does on occasions when he gets his act together but its more a hit the deck and seam it type attack which will probably do well in South Africa who have the same type of pitches and bowlers.
Your point is a good one though and Mark Taylor wants Sayers and Worrall to be considered when necessary with Starc to miss out. I think Neser or Abbott might get a game in the near future.
Green is impressive but after Cummins and crew have bowled he looks like a medium pacer and I think the Indians viewed him as light relief. I wouldnt want to over bowl him or make him step up his pace as he looks the injury prone type and we need him for his batting. Maybe he can bowl 130-135km and concentrate more on swinging the ball and leave the bouncers etc the frontline bowlers.

[ElwoodBlues1]

T20 has killed off swing bowling, there is hardly a single kid going around who can get it off dead straight!

Scrambled seam is the new black, but it's a very boring colour!

Thought the new kids Shardul and Natajaran swung the ball well for India, the former looks a real player as he can bat and get his pace up to 140km as well. IMO the AUS pitches/condition are all about 6'6" bowlers hitting the deck hard and trying to intimidate the opposition and swing bowlers are more of a novelty. When banana bender bowlers like Boult and Southee struggle to swing it when they play in Aus who would want be a swing bowler?