Last year Bumrah and Cummins were tied 3rd for most % of deliveries bowled faster than 140kmph in tests (46% of their deliveries),while shami’s 30% is quite comparable with hazlewood’s 31% despite having bowled like 70 overs more.
Ishant on the other hand is more suited to bowling in the high 130’s at his best, though does go into the low 140’s a few times like you said.Speed isn’t what’s getting him wickets, as he is swinging the ball alot these days(swung it more than anderson in eng while seam movement in 2018 was 2nd just to anderson by 1% ) so he wouldn’t mind being slower than the other 2 .
No one to really match starc in pace, though that’s pretty much the case for other teams as well.
Even though the upcoming series are just ODIs, excited to see how Saini does in them,he can be a bit on and off like archer has been of late,but when he is motivated, he bowls them quicker than bumrah.

Wagner is listed as a meduim fast on most sites his usual speeds goes from the high 120’s to mid 130’s. Pretty sure sure starc who can clock 150’s or close to it will be like 15 kmph quicker than him. Even boult these days is quicker than him(was 9th in terms of % of deliveries over 140kmph last year among test pacers).

Ashwin was piss poor initially in his career away from home, but avg 30.1 in his last tours to sa,eng and aust. He out bowled maharaj by some distance when india toured there last year something lyon wasn’t able to a month later.

I am not entirely sure but wont lyon as well benefit from having a strong pace attack around him at home,when it comes to his home record? I feel outside ashes of 2011 ,india’s previous tour and sa in general ,no other team toured with a good enough pace attack suited for australian conditions, this decade.Which means the spinners would have to try and make up for an inept pace attack on surfaces more unhelpful conditions.

I remember maharaj doing better than lyon in the 2016 series,swann being more effective in 2011 and all 3 of indian spinners avg below 30 last series(though smith and warner not playing would also been a reason).Not saying lyon’s impressive home record is based on just that reason alone,but rather i feel most of the well known spinner would have probably done better than their poor stats (in aus) indicate, with a better pace attack around them.

Though back to the world 11, i feel with his current form and improved performances away ashwin should edge lyon,though the latter would be better than other options like yasir and jadeja.

Ashwin was piss poor initially in his career away from home, but avg 30.1 in his last tours to sa,eng and aust. He out bowled maharaj by some distance when india toured there last year something lyon wasn’t able to a month later.

I am not entirely sure but wont lyon as well benefit from having a strong pace attack around him at home,when it comes to his home record? I feel outside ashes of 2011 ,india’s previous tour and sa in general no team has traveled with a good enough pace attack suited for australian conditions this decade.Which means the spinners would had to try and carry the team to make up for an inept pace attack on surfaces not suiting them.

I remember maharaj doing better than lyon in the 2016 series,swann being more effective in 2011 and all 3 of indian spinners avg below 30 last series(though smith and warner not playing would also been a reason).

Though back to the world 11, i feel with his current form and improved performances away ashwin should edge lyon,though the latter would be better than other options like yasir and jadeja.

Quite a stretch to say the pitch was flat when india batted and then it as soon as Australia started batting it was playing tricks.

The core of india’s batting in the 2nd innings fell due to a combination of poor shot selection and good field placement than any demons the pitch offered. Pujara and virat fell in quick succession trying to flick the ball and picked the fielder at leg gully,while Rahane fell by edging a ball going down the leg side, even rohit almost fell for the same leg gully tactic the 1st ball he faced.

After those 3 went it just a matter of time before the rest followed as Pant tried to ramp a ball and rohit tried to cut one going for quick runs.
Outside agarwal’s wicket the pitch didn’t influence the dismissals at all. Good field placements,batsmen trying to score quick runs,and couple of bouncers to to batsmen(vihari and jadeja) who struggled against it in previous games got the wickets.

RCB and Delhi got into a mindless bidding war, which jacked up his price tag.

RCb are historically weak when it comes to their bowling, so they wanted one quality international quick at all cost.

Delhi probably fancied their chances to win for the 1st time if they could partner cummins with rabada and so were equally enthusiastic .

In the end Kolkata got him cause despite their depth on paper when it comes to those who can clock close to 90 miles an hr(lockie, 2 india u19 quicks,Russell when motivated) all of them are injury prone and last season it hampered their chances alot, as they usually have a smaller squad in comparison to other teams.
No other team really looked interested in him, so i would think balance of the squad was one of the key factors as well.

Not really ,he was the top scorer in the ct 2013 final india won on a sluggish wicket (which was shortened to a 20 over game),man of the match in the a virtual knockout against Australia at 2016 t20i wc,scored a 89(47) vs windies in the semis . Man of the match against sa in the semis and 77 against lanka in 2014 final.
Been very consistent in both t20i knockouts and knockouts reduced to 20 over games.

India’s major issue in t20is( for quite a while) is when it comes to setting a total,which is an issue they haven’t solved even now. Virat is in fine form in chasing them,but when it comes to setting them are a lot of issues surrounding the team.
Mainly -Dhawan being the 1st choice opener based on odi form despite being avg in this format,Trying to promote unsuccessful sloggers or the back up opener to 3-4 spots and dropping virat down the order, Going with a long batting order with bits and piece cricketers rather than picking your 4 best bowlers ,only to collapse to below par scores, and recently (though, just in the last 2 games) some atrocious fielding (particularly by the newbies) reminiscent of the Indian team in 90’s.

Unless bumrah and kuldeep(if he makes the 11) takes 4 or 5 quick wickets, the current lineup will struggle to stop the better teams from chasing down totals which are usually below par or just par on those grounds.

Only plus side for India is having a fair number of t20i matches to try and get their combination right ,before the wc starts.If they aren’t willing to put friendships aside and pick players solely on merit by then, it’s guaranteed a semifinal exit will be the best possible result .

Was a fun innings to watch. Looked out of it for while,couldn’t find the gaps and was trying to over hit the ball.Then Cottrell and him had an exchange of words after which he started to middle everything(i think he scored 50 runs from the last 15-16 balls). For the rest of his innings he looked irate, letting his emotions show against Cottrell,Kesrick,Pollard,The umpires and even Pant for not running a single.

Amir avg 49 in Australia ,not sure what you expected him to do differently. Like his numbers suggest with similar avg of 43 in lanka and 56 in the uae, he isn’t really a bowler for conditions without some assistance in it for the quicks. He himself identified that weakness of his and was contemplating retirement for over a year now, to manage his workload.
Now that his pace has dipped and he rarely even clocks low 140s, his inclusion wouldn’t have amounted to much and probably would have played out just like with abbas.
Wahab on the other hand has a decent strike rate of 54 here, but as one expects from him, he gives away far too many runs in between those wicket taking deliveries to be a threat. He is also 34 years old right now and wont be able to put in as many overs as the youngsters did in this tour.
Neither of them could have given enough support to Shaheen Afridi to restrict the opposition to an achievable total so they themselves decided it was time to end their test careers.

Right now 6 of the Nz’s top 7 batsmen average 40 plus in tests.Even Raval who avg 34 seems somewhat capable of staying in for longer periods , which would be handy for the batsmen coming in down the order.
Not sure how each of them do away from home ,but i recall both Nicholls and Watling doing well on the 2 subcontinental tours, so they could provide ample support down the order for Kane and Taylor.If a strong foundation is set Grandhomme can come in and score some quick runs too.
With boult not available for the 2nd test against england(no word yet on the severity of the injury though) it even gives them a chance to test Ferguson out and with him likely to be in the squad to tour Australia ,the up coming series might be even more interesting.

I think it had more to do with his rhythm.Despite his career avg of 18 he avg 46 in his last 4 tests,which is still a big drop in a relatively short career(dropped from 3rd to 12th cause of that).

Some blamed it on him not recovering well from previous injury ,for his form in the 2 test in south africa,but the kiwis prior to his injury also managed to play him out in UAE.
Even in the recent domestic QEA trophy he was averaging 50 odd in the 3 games he played.

Waqar mentioned his pace has dropped off as well ,so if he wasn’t in rhythm or is still carrying some minor niggle or what not and under performed in Brisbane the fans back home would have opted to blame misbah and co for not picking imran in the team despite his form in the warmup game.

But i did see some home fans,a couple of writers for cricinfo from pakistan and even some reporters being happy with how the match played out as they enjoyed the mini fight back from babar even if the final outcome didn’t change.
With a few of the more delusional fans suggesting replacing 3-4 players, is all that’s needed to win the next test.

Obviously disagree given how the rest of the bowlers and batsmen all did in the series.(top 3 run getters were indians,agarwal’s runs in the last 2 games,kuldeep almost deciding the outcome of the last test,jadeja’s all rounder display in the 2 games ,all 3 indian quicks averaging better than the Australian counterparts etc)
India have made a few chopping and changing which is why after the 1st test keeping rahul and vijay was even weirder after their performance in the last couple of tours. Even then the 4th pacer strategy was too left field even for him given the fragility of the batting at the top with the opener and lack of depth that the 4th bowler would create.
Bumrah and Pujara were clearly exceptional but the contributions(despite your disagreement) from other 5-6 teammates who had a good to decent series( took wickets more cheaply with the ball or scored more runs with the bat than the Australian counterparts) added to the cause.

Same argument can be used by someone who only watched the decider at Dharamshala with a similar restrictions placed on India and a good margin of victory (assuming an 8 wicket win on a surface with no exaggerated swing , seam or massive turn can be considered alongside the 100 odd run lose at perth)
But the competitiveness of the series as a whole, prior to that match, was obviously not being accurately reflected , based on the outcome of that game.
Atleast by the decider of that tour Australia had settled on their 11 (of the best available) while the Indian team was still getting funky with their picks(no spinner, 2 openers in terrible form for an entire year) at perth. The team got better balance wise in the last 2 games and the results showed.
Right now outside the ongoing Rohit Sharma experiment (which looks bound to fail on paper and hopefully scrapped after nz tour) the team is even more balanced and with a better opener in place and bumrah back in time i imagine a scoreline like in the recent ashes not being improbable next year.

Shami was averaging better than Cummins in the series with better strike rate as well, while Pant was the 2nd highest run scorer and Agarwal came in averaging 66 in the 2 tests he played Then there was kuldeep’s 5 fer as well which would have resulted in an innings defeat had rain not washed away the game.
Even with weaker teams india have managed to draw tests in australia,so a 4-0 loss was never on the cards maybe at worse, a 2-2 tie(assuming the rain also didn’t spoil the last days play in the 4th test) . Though a ‘what if’ argument can be made on umesh yadav not being included in perth at the cost of the allrounder in jadeja which resulted in an all pace attack and a longer tail .
India as well managed to win the series decider between both team at home in 2016 in Dharamsala (on a wicket which offered bounce and lyon likened to conditions back home) by 8 wickets without shami,virat in the 11,bumrah yet to play tests and minimal contributions from pujara in the match, so winning at home shouldn’t be considered as big deal even with couple of players missing if you are a decent team(Touring to any of the top 5 ranked nations with a weakened team on the other hand is a much more difficult task)

Probably has more so to do with the times we live in. These days with shorter boundaries and flatter wickets any decent batsmen can avg 40 in odis(compared to only the elites in the 90’s and early 2000’s) and with the t20s being played regularly the strike rates also are increasing.
So when these batsmen move on to tests (which outside the big 3-4 teams play very little of) they get impatient rather easily, after just a few overs of sustained pressure and go on the attack far too early.

Another factor is the excessive home advantage most teams extracts from the pitches to the point even teams like bangladesh were capable of beating england and australia at home by going with an all spin attack(windies were doing similarly with the excessive movement and bounce their pitch generated against eng ,bang and lanka).

Last year in particular, the overall bowling avg(cumulative avg around the world) of 27.37 was the best avg since 1960’s while the strike rate of 54.7 was the first time it went below 60 balls per wickets in 95 years.

So it’s a combination of how the game is played these days , the pitches they are played on ,lesser number of test played by most teams and increase in the quality of bowlers around the world all contributing to it.
With the openers facing the brunt of it because they usually bat when conditions are least favorable.

Rahane ain’t an opener in tests. The highest ranked openers in tests are Latham,Karunaratne,Rohit and Agrawal.
Rohit before the ongoing bangladesh series was averaging more than bradman at home so was the very definition of home track bully(though like warner is a white ball great)
Latham has so far only performed against the weaker teams and that too mostly at home.
Agarwal despite avg 67 right now has only scored 800 odd international runs, so need to see how he goes a year or two from now.
Karunaratne scores vital runs (instrumental in their series win in uae,home series against south africa, and a scored a gritty 2nd innings 140 against a strong indian lineup) but is too inconsistent outside asia which is reflected on his avg.
Markram was hyped too much and flopped in the subcontinent (in both lanka and india) .He even looks lost at sea against spin in white ball cricket.
Azhar ali who was terrific till misbah and younis left, hasn’t been the same since.
Even though Warner is usually only consistent at home he did well in the 2015 ashes tour, 2014 tour to south africa ,uae and was even the top run getter in the previous tour to bangladesh( on rank turners at that).
So right now the only genuine competition he has among the experienced openers is elgar and as such any team will consider themselves lucky to have him open for them.

Nah Warner over Rohit any day, in tests(much closer to decide in the other 2 formats). Rohit has so far been a huge home track bully in tests, to the point he had a better home avg than bradman after the south african series.

If anything Agarwal with the impressive start he had to his career(avg 67 now with 800 odd runs) and the u19 kids in gill and shaw , both at the cusp of a permanent spot in the 15, are likely to be more influential test openers than Rohit.

If this was 2 years ago i would have said azhar ali or cook were the best openers in the world,but ever since both misbah and younis retired and he was tasked to be their batting mainstay azhar’s done a terrible job at it.

So the only opener (mini of 1000 runs) who is a proper competition for warner right now is probably elger. So like you said right now any team will be lucky to have warner as their opener.

Nah Warner over Rohit any day, in tests(much closer to decide in the other 2 formats). Rohit has so far been a huge home track bully in tests, to the point he had a better home avg than bradman after the south african series.

If anything Agarwal with the impressive start he had to his career(avg 67 now with 800 odd runs) and the u19 kids in gill and shaw , both at the cusp of a permanent spot in the 15, are likely to be more influential test openers than Rohit.

If this was 2 years ago i would have said azhar ali or cook were the best openers in the world,but ever since both misbah and younis retired and he was tasked to be their batting mainstay azhar’s done a terrible job at it.

So the only opener (mini of 1000 runs) who is a proper competition for warner right now is probably elger. So like you said right now any team will be lucky to have warner as their opener.

Even some of the more well known reporters and statisticians from Pakistan felt Imran being a bit similar to abbas ,but with the 8-10kmph added pace, would mean he be more successful here after the 5fer he took in the warmup game.
With abbas it’s also possible after the insane start he had to his career,the fact he is averaging 46 in the last 4 test matches and not having a good domestic season (Avg 52 in the 3 games he played) either meant the management were worried about his rhythm and didn’t want to risk playing him if it had something to do with an injury or his confidence.

18-19.
He had been called a promising 16 year old 2 years ago. Was reported to be 17 last year but apparently back to 16 again this year.

Not sure he is really 16 ,might be a bit similar case to Shahid Afridi’s(though not as big a difference). Saw tweets and articles about him a year ago by pakistan reporters calling him 17 back then and one of their newspaper quoting andy roberts 2 years ago calling him a promising 16 year old.

Took another hat trick today

I think they lost by 200 some runs to Afghanistan at home recently and that was with even shakib in the 11. I rather fancy their chances to beat any non asian teams in asia than any of the top asian test teams.

Oops i thought it was the other way around(since everything leading up to the test series only involved talks of the game in eden gardens),in which case definitely umesh over ishant in the 1st test.
Even start sports had a poll put out in the last game against south africa asking who should be the 2nd seamer ,with even internet fans backing umesh over ishant. Though i feel it should have never been in doubt.
Umesh was statistically the best quick from both teams when Australia last toured india,which also happened to be the only series india were ever challenged at home under virat,so his spot in home series should have never been in doubt unless bumrah is fit(though i would argue given how well the 2 spinners and shami go at home India can afford to rest him in asia more times than not).

Ishant sharma despite the upsurge over the last couple of years, wouldn’t make it in an ideal 11 in indian conditions, as the surfaces don’t suit him.So if this wasn’t a day night test i would have disagreed with that selection as umesh yadav is easily india’s no:2 quick at home.

However with this being a day night test and being played at Eden Gardens (where a swing bowler like bhuvi avg 14 ) he will probably make the cut, though i won’t be surprised if india opt to play all 3 quicks like they did in the 2nd test against south africa