Jadeja is out of the first test. So Ashwin has to play. I don’t believe Australian wickets last time were “un-Australian”. For a few seasons, Melbourne and Sydney have been batting wickets; with Melbourne even rated as very ordinary during 2017-18 Ashes. Australian wickets haven’t been pace and bounce like South African wickets (except Perth) for a while now.

What I saw from Shami and Bumrah with pink ball in the warm up game on first day should make Aussie batsmen a tad worried. Agree that once the ball went soft and especially in second innings when the pitch flattened out, the impact was not great. But I also thought Indian pacers pulled back a bit instead of gunning for a win. They will be relentless in a test match. Umesh Yadav is perfect for pink ball test as he swings more than seams. He should provide a solid back up to the two and Ashwin is always handy in any condition; he especially bowled very well last time in a day test at Adelaide. I reckon, if Indian batters can stitch together partnerships and score 300, in the first innings they will win this test. Aussie batting is a tad suspect with absence of Warner who is a big wall at the beginning for any attack especially at home. And that always prevents opposition fast bowlers from getting into the middle order earlier. That cover is not available in this test which will have a major impact. I believe the curator will keep fair amount of grass, so it will be bowlers paradise, if only they don’t get carried away….

Yup. Very fondly, for obvious reasons. I was living in India then and it was beamed there live; a rare thing at that time for Indian fans. I believe it was to commemorate the 150th year of Victoria Cricket Association. Called as mini-world cup. Ravi Shastri won the Man of the Series and an Audi. That’s perhaps the best Indian ODI tournament performance I have seen; they were absolutely dominating. Dismissed every team they played against. It was Shiva’s spin plus Indian medium pacers swing and control that did the trick. For the first time I saw Indian bowlers dominate a tournament more than their batsmen, which I thought was the reason for the win. Last sojourn for Sunny Gavaskar as the skipper; he had declared it before the tournament. Some of the games were really good; very competitive.

Nice article Paul. Sarfraz is rumoured to have developed the skill of reverse swing. I have seen a bit of him on TV in tests between India and Pakistan. He was very very good. Chaminda Vaas, another skilful bowler. Kapil to me is simply the best cricketer India has produced ever. He is a rare fast bowler who has never missed a test due to injury! And must have bowled the least number of no balls in test or odis amongst pace bowlers. He used to be conscious of that even in nets.

Paul, the inexperienced opening partnership makes India’s batting a bit fragile and brings it on balance. On the subcontinent at 20 deg C people wear two jumpers. With high winds there is something called as chill factor which can drop the temp down significantly. It’s all about experience of playing in such condition which many Indians do not have..

Poor pitch!! If you are talking about 2015 series, agree. Fifth day pitch in any country looses a bit of bounce and yields more spin. In fact, best test wicket is expected to spin a bit from 3rd day onwards. Also, the second test at Pune; I am not sure if you watched any footage or not. This has been the best wicket I have seen since 70s in India, in terms of bounce and carry. Indian pace bowlers have so far taken 16/40 wickets with one fifer to Shami. In Pune, out of Protea’s 10 first innings wickets, five went to pace bowlers. Indian wickets these days are more balanced than some in Australia, SA, England in that they are either do too much or too little. Indian spinners of course are good when there is some purchase. But Indian team’s current success is more due to its pace bowling group of Ishant, Bumrah, Shami, Yadav and one who isn’t playing test cricket these days, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar; with a few waiting in the wings. Indian bowling attack these days is perhaps the most balanced of all and dangerous on every type of wicket.

Proteas have done really well so far in the test. After 3/39 they fought really hard to get up to 431. That’s a fair effort. I thought they missed a trick by having three spinners; should have gone with Ngidi. Also on the first day, Dad’s captaincy was a bit surprising where he didn’t have his pace bowlers have a little longer spells than 4/5. I believe in India, a bowler needs to bowl more to set a trap and shorter spells doesn’t allow that. I believe, India have chosen Vizag for its typical Indian slow turner nature. I reckon they can’t afford to play on a very spinning track as their batters are more adept at playing on faster wickets than spinning ones. If they can’t force wins in first two tests, the third one at Ranchi may spin a bit more..

Nice article, Ritesh. Took me down memory lane as in those days we couldn’t even get radio commentary, forget about TV coverage of the test matches from West Indies. I remember getting updates from the day’s play next day on radio and in print media. There were no TV/movie footage; or at least I haven’t seen one. What’s more remarkable in Sunny’s case was that this was his debut series. It’s a record that will perhaps last for a very long time. Sunny was very easy on the eyes; the best opening batsman ever, I have seen.

No Stark yet? I would have liked to see Cummins, Pattinson and Stark.

I think they should have gone with Sam Curran. The kid is a fantastic cricketer; his intervention last year won them the series against India. His left arm swing would have been more difficult to handle for the Aussies. They could have done with one less batsman; with Bairstow at 6, Ali at 7, Woakes at 8 and Curran at 9 that is plenty of back up.

Great summery Ronan. I reckon, a combination of Kwis having a very good bowling attack and Aussies unsure middle order, may help. However, Aussies would be hurting after last summer’s loss to India so they will be coming hard at the Kiwis in home series. Perth is a great chance for Kiwis, but can their batting stand up, is the real question. I don’t think this team has won much outside New Zealand. That lack of experience, is what may finally make a difference in favor of Aussies.

I think the major and “perceived” reason for Pujara being left out of limited overs formats is his speed in both, running between the wickets and on field. He doesn’t even get picked in IPL draft. He did show great improvement in his running between the wickets in the test series. I think they missed solidity of Ajinkya Rehane; I would have taken him to the world cup as conditions were always going to be challenging That’s one big miss, for me, by the selectors and mainly the skipper, since he seems to hold sway..

Robbed, may be too strong a word. All teams knew the conditions before the start of the tournament. So no one was robbed. Agree, that the count back on boundaries is not ideal. I would personally prefer number of wickets lost since that indicates which side has played better or which one has been weaker on the day.
It is nothing new that the rub of the green in any part of the world, even after neutral umpires, has by and large gone with the home team. In this case, of course, I am not counting the “error of judgement” made by the umpires in giving 6 instead of 5. The fact that different umpires judge close LBW call differently today than before has a significant role to play also. Jason Roy’s LBW was lot more close to not being an Umpire’s call than Kohli’s. But was judged differently by two umpires. That needs to change. I believe, if ICC has confidence in ball tracking technology (I still do not) then they should rule ANY ball even touching the stumps or bail, as OUT. I know there is some instrument “tolerance” in prediction of the path, but so be it, as long as it is consistent right across the cricket playing world.
Also Ronan, I am not sure about your comments about England, India or Australian teams not being able to accept such a defeat as gracefully as Kiwis have done (and kudos to them). It is unfair to judge these players based on their aggressive nature and propose they would have behaved badly on the ground. Sorry, that’s one under the belt and probably a presumption worse than saying that Kiwis would have won if umpires had given only 5 and sent Stokes to the non-striker end. Do agree, though, that its all fair in love and ranting! 🙂

fair enough…. 🙂

Paul, fair trade off. 2 nd place gets two bites of the cherry

Jeff, 4 teams only. This was used in 2019 IPL. Finals in two stages : First two playoff games. (1) 1 plays 2 (2) 3 plays 4. Winner of the (1) goes to the final. Looser of (1) plays against the winner of (2) for a place in the finals. Means 1 & 2 placed teams on the table get another opportunity. Would make Finals lot more exiting as well.

I live in Australia since long and understand the passion for Ashes. But it doesn’t change the fact that a world event has to be given higher billing than a bilateral series.

Agree with Ronan. I watched it fully. There were quite a few half volleys or pitched-up balls that Dhoni could only pat back to one of the two close-in fielders on the off side. In his hey days, he would have placed them easily between them and rotated the strike. There were plenty of opportunities to keep the score ticking when he came in. He has lost the touch, sadly.

Hats off to this team and mainly to one of the best skippers this World cup!!

Pant is the next outstanding emerging cricketer. He was totally unflustered; I thought it was unfair to put him in at 2/5 with both Rohit and Kohli back in the hut. I thought that was the time for Dhoni, the pro to come in and take charge. But the way in which Pant and Pandya forged a partnership bodes well for the Indian ODI team. This was a big missed opportunity for Indians to win the cup. For me, though, the problem was one less seamer. India should have played Shami in place of Karthik. I think they would have stopped kiwis to ~210. But Kiwis played fantastic cricket. To come back after three straight losses, and a couple of them quite badly too, says a lot about the mental strength of this team and Williamson’s outstanding captainship. Bravo!!

Paul, he is referring to the outstanding cricket they have played to top the table. That’s a fair comment. He said Kiwis bowled very well and gave due credit in his post match interview on the ground. Kiwis played brilliantly, and found sufficient chinks in the Indian armour.

Length of a series shouldn’t dictate its importance. World cup is more prestigious and important than ANY bilateral series. PERIOD! If ICC can’t ensure that it’s a pity. Ashes could have been shifted.

I don’t think pitch will be affected by the rain. The Hover covers are pretty good. The air flow keeps the wicket dry. I don’t know what is the impact of the moisture content of the air but India has to accept that. The cloud cover is a different matter; but that can happen even otherwise.
The ‘major protest’ you are referring to, perhaps should be for the scheduling such an important event at a bad time in English summer. It should have been held in Aug/Sep. If English can’t provide prime time to ICC’s major event and give priority to a test series or their domestic circuit, may be they shouldn’t host a world cup.

Thanks Mehul. Please keep visiting.

Thanks Nishith.