God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[Gointocarlton]

Paul, Did they win it or did we lose it?..Credit to them as you say and some of their players were actually 3rd stringers who were not even in the test squad. This will go down in Indian cricket history as their greatest series win, this is probably better than our 1970 comeback vs the Pies to win the GF.

You can only beat what's in front of you EB. The Indians showed grit, determination, courage, you name it. It was a great performance, Aussies got too darken cocky and they got their just deserts.

[Professer E]

I reckon losing bowlers was a positive as they kept bringing in fresh players.  We just flogged the same group.

Ego and reputation is driving selection,  not production.  It has to stop.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Lyon spent most of this match bowling the wrong line.  There was plenty there for him when started putting it outside off.

Bad captaincy and bad coaching.

I'd like to see a young leg spinner introduced so we have more firepower, Lyon bowls well in Perth and Adelaide but is nothing special anywhere else...think his best at Brisbane is 4/69 so he isnt likely to run through a team and win you the game on the last day. He is economical but his test average overall is around 31-32 which isnt anything special IMO.

[PaulP]

Paul, Did they win it or did we lose it?..Credit to them as you say and some of their players were actually 3rd stringers who were not even in the test squad. This will go down in Indian cricket history as their greatest series win, this is probably better than our 1970 comeback vs the Pies to win the GF.

It's a hard question to answer EB, as it is with any game in any sport - both teams play their part. The Aussies had everything in their favor - ground, experience, history. I would have thought they would win easily, even if they played an ordinary, half rat juice brand.

[ElwoodBlues1]

You can only beat what's in front of you EB. The Indians showed grit, determination, courage, you name it. It was a great performance, Aussies got too darken cocky and they got their just deserts.

Dont disagree...we underestimated their fight and spirit and thought they would roll over but these modern Indian players are different and Kholi/Shastri have changed their mindset.
They play hard cricket and we are stuck in the past trying to play mind games instead of doing our homework on their players and concentrating on the basics. Paine and Langar have got to go and we need a fresh start with a captain and coach who can think/react better when the games on the line.

[tonyo]

This bowling group has shown on several occasions they cannot get the job done on the last day, especially Lyon.  Should have won the last two tests, but didn't get close in either on a spinning deck. 

Think Stokes in Ashes test as well.

They need to get a bit of snarl into the attack. 

[capcom]

Suck on that Langer ... duckhead.  If that's the catalyst for kicking his useless arse to oblivion, all good by moi.

[rocky]

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.

[Professer E]

Don't know who the bowling coach is,  but should be sacked by 9.05 tommorrow.

Started with awful selections, compounded by awful bowling plans and poor execution of whatever half arsed plans were in place.  Seriously,  WTF line was Lyon bowling most of today? There was more than enough in that pitch for him to get the job done.  The others never found a dangerous length and they never hit the supposed cracks.

We'll never won't get trophy back in India either - doctored pitches and won't select the right side with a hope if winning.  Two spinners,  two pacemen and an all-rounder for starters. 

[crashlander]

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.

[2] Selectors:
It has been said that it is harder to get out of the Australian side than it is to get into it. There is a little too much truth in this for my tastes, particularly if the player comes from NSW.
(a) To put it simply, our selection techniques look old fashioned. We do not appear to select players on form. We do not manage our players, so they don't play themselves into oblivion. We do not select horses for courses. It might be good that players do not want to give their spot up, but that allows us to blood players and play the guys who are in the best form.
For example, Mitch Starc is a very up and down player who has injury issues. he is also very much a confidence player and, at the moment, his confidence is low. His pace has been fine, but where are his yorkers, one of his best weapons? Where is the movement through the air?
By identifying when he is in a down patch, we do not let him go back to the Sheffield Shield and find form. Instead we keep playing him and lowering his confidence.
If we went into the game with a stable of 4 - 6 past bowlers and select the ones that are going the best, we would be playing fewer guys who are out of form. And we do have some guys who are worth looking at.
Similarly with the batting. Guys fear losing their spot because they believe someone else who gets a chance might do better. If they were in a squad of 7 - 8 batsmen, they could be easily replaced and not have fear, as they are still in the squad. But it would allow us to mix and match and to play fit players in form.

[3] Sheffield Shield:
I quite like the Big Bash. It is quite entertaining and does help blood Australian players against the best going around. However, our test batsmen never play in it. Nor can our player easily come in or out of the test side when everybody else is playing limited overs cricket.
We should be having shield game going while at least 3 of the 5 usual summer tests are being played. That would give the selectors a much better opportunity to select the best in-form players available. The Big bash does not.
Also the Sheffield Shield is not getting the support it needs. We can only get test quality players by having guys playing under test-like conditions, and for their performances in that form meaning a lot more than it does now. At the moment, the Shield is sort of placed in wherever there is a gap in scheduling something else.
Mind you, one day cricket is also suffering from poor scheduling. It doesn't even get onto free-to-air TV, neither international or otherwise. Scheduling needs a lot of work, and maybe less international cricket. There is almost no time now between tests, which makes players struggle to back up. There is certainly no opportunity to find form during a test series for someone not travelling so well.

[4] Pitches:
This is also a problem in scheduling as much as anything. Putting a test in Brisbane at this time of year is not smart, as there is often considerable wet weather. The Brisbane test should held in November or early December, when conditions are at their best.
Similarly, Perth, best suited as the 2nd test in a series, when the temperature is not 41ºC every day.
Which brings me back to a topic I discussed a few days ago. Other teams generally prepare pitches that suit their team. Even England tries. So, why don't we?
India did not face a single fast, bouncy pitch on their entire tour, something supposedly in our favour. Instead there were games where the pitches suited India more than us. Note this one, which lacked the normal bounce. I've already brought up our inability to move the ball in the air and off the pitch, so I won't go there.
India no longer has the excuse to produce the poor pitches they did: they have lots of money, resources and ground staff. There is no good reason why they should not produce pitches up to our standard. But they don't, even though they actually have a decent number of quicker bowlers available. What do we get? Rolled mud that spins on the first day and never bounces higher than the stumps. Other countries do not have the money the BCCI has. I can understand why some of their pitches may be less than perfect. However, India has no excuse.
New Zealand generally produces pitches conducive to their attacks, no matter what that attack may be. We do not. That is little short of stupidity.