Coming into this late…

Brett – that is a remarkable laundry list for no other reason than almost everything you said being covered in utter cr@p. Well done Kamran for your balanced response.

Kamran – enjoyable read. There are obviously different ways to measure how good a rivalry is. You are right – from a purely on field play perspective, hard to look past BGT as the most competitive over the past 25 years or so. From a fan’s perspective, Ashes sits at the top. But that’s only because India and Pakistan don’t play tests against each other. If they did, there would be 1.5 billion fans that would say this is the best and relegate the Ashes to shade.

Players build everything up. I get the feeling the Indians love to win in SENA countries, but they would value wins in Australia and England the most. And while we’ll never know the answer, I would wager that there would be a few Aussie players that would give up series wins / draws against England for just one test series win in India.

Bloody impressive by India given the quality on the bench for all or part of the series – Kohli, KL Rahul, Shami, Ashwin, Bumrah. And finally handing England a series loss… they’ve had a good run and will win more than they lose. It’s been a great contest, and hopefully the start of some long careers for younger players like Jaiswal, Jurel, Deep, Hartley, Ahmed and Bashir. I hope this Indian team can make next summer’s BGT exciting like the last two in Australia.
There will no doubt be some unjustified complaints about this pitch. But again, for me this was a good wicket, as they have been all series. Decent amount of runs, two results possible towards the end and day 4 finish. The ball wasn’t turning corners but there was a bit of up and down. And the team batting 2nd managed to eek out a win. All in all, batsmen that applied themselves (i.e. Root) were rewarded.

What’s exciting for me is that this is the most inexperienced Indian batting line I can ever remember. Stokes has played more games than our top 6! Add to that we are missing Shami, I can’t imagine an easier time to smash and grab a rare away series win in India.

England fans may justify this loss by saying they had no hope anyway because beating India in India is near impossible, but that is a massive cop out.

In saying that, England has batting upside. Surely Root will change his approach and score a few runs. And Crawley and Pope look prime for more time in the middle. And no Bumrah for the next game.

Separately, really looking forward to the BGT next summer in Australia. Not expecting another series win but eager to see how Jaiswal, Khan and our other young batsmen respond to the pace and bounce. And given it will be a long 5 test series, we’ll be using a 4th seam bowler (whoever that is) who could get massively exposed.

Good post, BG.

I reckon, based on available players, England has more upside. Root will surely find some runs, and Pope, Crawley and Stokes look switched on and could go on to score more. The next pitch could be a turner if Bumrah is rested. But if we get decks like the first two games, England may go with two pace bowlers given the success Anderson and Bumrah had in game two. They will be stronger for the variety in their bowling attack.

For India, the only way we get better is if some of our players sitting on the pine return – not a great deal of upside in the current XI. In saying all this, I reckon Patidar looked alright. His first innings dismissal was a little unlucky after playing 70 odd deliveries, and in the second innings he got one that stayed low.

I like the general composure of Jaiswal, he looks different to a lot of other young guns that have come through and never amounted to anything. He got out in South Africa to good deliveries in the first test, they were very typical South African dismissals and no shame in that as a young Asian batsman. The 2nd test wicket was a shocker so might be stiff to judge any performance on that! But I am excited to see what he can produce in Australia later this year.

I’m not sure, but I also think the media and some fans make a much bigger deal of Indian pitches than they need to. If you do a quick scorecard review of the past 5 BG series in India you’ll find that out of the 16 tests in total, only 2 or maybe 3 were horrible pitches. All of these were during the 2022/23 series – Delhi was a turner but India still managed to score some runs on that, Indore was a rank turner and Ahmedebad was a featherbed.

In all the other games, at least one team managed sizeable scores (i.e. more than 450 across 2 innings, but generally way more than that).

Popular opinion is that big turners simply bring opposition spinners into the game and bring the result closer to a lottery, which I tend to agree with. So it’s nice to see some balanced pitches being prepared for this series so far.

Another great contest between two evenly matched teams. For India a team in transition and a host of stars missing and for England a woefully inexperienced spin bowling brigade.

The margin was a little bigger than the 1st test but every bit as thrilling for me sitting in the Indian camp.

Great to see some next gen stars from both teams score lots of runs in the first two games.

Bumrah is not the best test pace bowler in the world, but for he is the most exhilarating. Watching him in full flight is the most joyous sight in world cricket. I love how he gets wickets – yorkers, slow dippers – as he’s constantly attacking the stumps. Amazed at the amount of venom he generated on a 4th day Indian pitch.

On that, wickets of the highest standard in the series so far. Results – check. Lots of runs – check. Spin dominating – check. Pace playing more than a “scuff the ball” role – check.

I thought their approach in Pakistan wouldn’t be sustainable. But England’s quick scoring, creative field placements and quirky declarations meant we had an absolute humdinger of an Ashes series where every game was a thriller. And so was the 1st test against India. (From memory they also played a short series in NZ with a classic finish…?) I reckon people find their games entertaining because of the closeness of their games, not necessarily how they play.

I said this during the Australia series last year, but this is a huge opportunity for England to win a series in India. We are a team in (slow) transition, ageing stars, a few green batsmen. And no Kohli, Shami and now Rahul and Sir Ravi. They aren’t as underdogs as they portray themselves to be.

Yup Pune was a very good win. And you are right, this Indian (batting) line up isn’t that flash for the reasons you mentioned. I think this was the first time our XI had no Kohli, Pujara and Rahane since like 2011.

But what I liked about this win was that I’ve never seen our spin bowlers so comprehensively thrown off our game and not have an answer to the opposition (namely Pope). And we had a 200 odd run lead after the 1st innings.

In saying all this, the overall result isn’t a huge surprise. England have a relatively good record in India and India has been a team in transition for the past year and will continue to refresh over the next 2 years… we are ripe for the picking at home.

As an Indian supporter I’d like to think that we win if Kohli played but I’m not sure he could have done anything about the Poms in this game. It was the most impressive win by a visiting team on Indian soil in 2000s.

England executed their strategy perfectly in the 2nd dig and India had no answers. India a ridiculously one dimensional at home. 9/10 times our spinners get the job done in the same way. Sharma didn’t adapt or try anything different to get wickets / stem runs. It didn’t look like we had a Plan B (similar to the ODI WC final).

For me the bigger loss was Shami. He’s a gun, and Mo Siraj is not. Bumrah still picked up 6 of the 20 England wickets, Mo Siraj none. Shami would have made a much more telling contribution.

Great game though, tight result. Can’t be too critical as small moments could have made the difference (same for the Aus v WI game). I think Pope was dropped on 110 or something. But I have to say, India need to tone down the confidence at home and expect, especially in this series, to be challenged and surprised and to have a few counter attacking plans in place.

Australia were in P when they started, and just got better and better. I reckon Maxi’s knock against Afg would have boosted their confidence even further. A “we can get out of any situation” type of confidence. Almost like a reverse impact on Australia of the Bairstow stumping and ensuing crowd and media beat up.

Good comment, BG. Perhaps the BCCI should spend less money, time and resources on hosting Modi, airshows and other cringe pre game hype activities and more in mental conditioning players to close that 1% – 5% gap. There is already so much pressure, the Indian lads don’t need more. Down to Modi presenting the winners cup… I can’t recall a single international sports comp where the country’s political leader played that role.

Contrast that to Australia who were stretched and tested multiple times during the tournament and had practice implementing different strategies in different situations… it was almost a blessing in disguise. And India’s relatively bruise free run to the final maybe gave us a false sense of security in our ability to keep executing the same plan and get a W. Australia are too good a team to not expect a stern challenge in the big games.

I find it tough to analyse how good (or bad) we are. Indian cricket has come such a long way over the past 20 years. We perform at a consistently high level in bilateral series across all 3 formats and go deep in just about every ICC tournament anywhere in the world, but with no silverware to show. I haven’t seen the stats but I reckon our overall W/L ratio in tests and 50 overs would have to be at the top of the list. And I reckon we have won more test matches in SENA countries than Pakistan, Lanka and Bangladesh combined.

But our failure to perform when it matters most has become such glaringly huge problem it can no longer be ignored. Sometimes we’ve fallen sort we’ve genuinely lost to teams playing better than us in conditions that suit them. Like the two WTC finals. Which is fine. But there are other occasions where we seem to have let good opportunities slip, last night included. Australia brought their best game of the tournament, as they always seem to do in the final, and we looked a shell of ourselves compared to the past 6 weeks. Others that come to mind are failing twice to bowl out South Africa after setting decent 4th innings targets (in South Africa). From memory the gritty Dean Elgar guided the Saffers home on both occasions after we led the 3 match series 1-0. Another one is England chasing down circa 370 in the delayed 5th test (in England) thanks to a blistering Bairstow knock, with us leading the 5 match series 2-1.

Our loss to the Kiwis in the previous WC semi was down to 5 horrific overs where we lost 3 wickets in seaming conditions. That after another pretty solid campaign overall.

The afterglow of the Gabba and 2 consecutive BG series wins in Australia has well and truly faded. In over a decade on international cricket across 3 formats, that is all we have to show. No test series wins in South Africa, England or New Zealand. No ICC trophies.

I get that the Indian cricket team face a level and intensity of pressure unmatched by another other sports organisation on earth. And I get that ICC trophies are hard to come by. But we are venturing to a point now where this will start to play on our minds and each time we make a final or down to a decisive 4th innings in a test match, it will get harder and harder to come out on top.

Every Indian captain of the 21st century has instilled resolve, confidence and discipline in our cricketing culture in their own way. But now with many ageing stars and as we churn over our team for at tough few years ahead, Indian fans can only hope the next captain can start to take us that one step further and find some reward for all our hard work, that 5% that is missing.

That’s my rant over. To the winners to bask in the glory of another ODI WC win.

Rowdy, I have a few mates that also claim Aus has the best / fairest pitches in the world and that Ind doctor pitches for extreme advantage. So I did a really simple analysis over 5, 10 and 20 years on the averages and S/R of spin and pace and ratio of the number of wickets of spin and pace in all countries. And this is what I found. Firstly, all 3 indicators correlated closely. England had the smallest differential between spin and pace average and S/R and ratio (favoured towards pace). So statistically, they have the fairest pitches. The largest gap across all 3 indicators was Saf (favoured towards pace), then, drum roll please… Aus (favoured towards pace), and then Ind (favoured towards spin). Surprisingly, Lanka was pretty close (from memory). I’d be happy to provide the numbers. It really does put in perspective how weak and hypocritical the pitch doctoring claim is by Aus fans.

Pitches curated for home advantage in Aus are ingrained in processes, culture and psyche.

No, not at all. Re DRS in the early days, the ICC made the use of technology optional or, for a bilateral series, in arrangement between the teams playing. BCCI did not agree to use it, and were 100% entitled to not agree. Annoying, yes. Illegal, no. And I think it was the same for D/N.

Laughable that so many cricket fans sprout nonsense about BCCI breaking rules on DRS, D/N cricket, or controlling CA scheduling, or how pitches are prepared here. All baseless and wrong.

Great, so lets move on from scheduling and pitch doctoring. Now I don’t have all the answers, and am happy to learn. I follow the actual game more than the stuff that happens in the board rooms which is why I’m disappointed that none of the expert scribes have yet written an insightful analytical piece on India’s performance this WC and rather chosen to focus on things like pitch switching and Kohli’s selfish batting.

Re DRS – it’s my understanding that in the early stages of inception, both teams had to agree to the use of DRS. And this trumped abiding by local conditions. If that was true, then the BCCI were well within their rights to refuse DRS.

And ditto for D/N – visiting teams were allowed to refuse these fixtures. So we did, again within the rules.

If you can provide me with a credible source that BCCI broke these rules and we still got our way, then as I said, I’m a student of the game.

But my question is this – why didn’t CA cancel the tours if BCCI broke the rules and seek compensation from the ICC? It would have been well within their right to do so.

FWIW – I wish we got on board with DRS and D/N sooner. Both great innovations.

Let’s break down the issue in a composed manner and not use this as an opportunity to air our laundry list of grievances with with BCCI.

Risk 1 – India doctors pitches to unfairly advantage their team, and may doctor pitches in other games to influence results.
Control 1 – ICC consultants oversee all pitch preparation during the WC (including the switched pitch for the NZ semi).
Effectiveness 1 – IMO, this control is very effective. Fair and fantastic pitches, everyone has had a crack – spin, pace and batsmen – and we have seen a variety of scores.

Risk 2 – BCCI switch pitches at the last minute to gain an unfair advantage for India.
Control 2 – ICC approves the pitch prior to the game.
Effectiveness 2 – Ineffective (from what you read on the Roar). Effective if you go by the ICCs official statement: “Changes to planned pitch rotations are common towards the end of an event of this length, and has already happened a couple of times. This change was made on the recommendation of the venue curator in conjunction with our host. The ICC independent pitch consultant was apprised of the change and has no reason to believe the pitch won’t play well.”

Maybe the ICC needs to tighten it’s procedures, more transparency on pitch selection and approval.

You can believe the Daily Mail, or you can believe the ICC. In any case, if it was to gain an advantage, it was the biggest fail of all time. 750 runs and 1 wicket to spin. It was neither slow nor spin friendly. Perhaps in the end the simplest explanation is true, and that change was made to ensure the best spectacle.

The original post was about BCCI influence on CA scheduling and Aussie pitch preparation. The DRS issue was because, rightly or wrongly, our players hated it because of the obvious limitations in the tech. Nothing to do with scheduling. Then DRS got mandated and we fell in line. All good. And refusal to play D/N – there was a stage when visiting teams were allowed to refuse this, so we simply exercised our right.

You do realise the BCCI represents our players and acts in our best interest, so we are allowed to have a view on things like DRS and D/N tests? BCCI may not be the most innovative board in world cricket, but it doesn’t have to fall in line on every topic.

Commercial nous would help. Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney have the largest Indian diaspora and are the marquee tests = more cash to line CAs pockets. Which leaves one test to float between the other venues, and it certainly wont be Hobart. India have no influence on CA scheduling and suggesting otherwise shows a clear lack of understanding of CAs commercial drivers. And not to mention pitch influencing given the stats I provided about the SCG.

This is a myth created by fans in Australia and is baseless. BG has been a 4 test series. So that means Adelaide Oval, SCG and MCG are locks to host matches, and the other match switches between WACA and Gabba. That’s what happened in the past 2 BG series in Australia.

Re SCG being a dust bowl. In the 2021 test, spinners took 8 out of the 31 wickets. And Lyon went wicketless in the 4th dig. In the 2019 test (which was rained out), spinners took 3 out of the 14 wickets that fell in that game. Look at the figures before sprouting nonsense.

Interesting. I didn’t realise that there is precedent in pitch switching AND that pitches were switched and used without ICC approval (would be good if you can share a credible source for my knowledge). If this is in fact the case, then surely the match officials / umpires should not allow the game to go ahead on any pitch not ICC approved and impose some sort of fine / sanction on the host nation. Easy to say the BCCI wield too much power and the ICC is toothless but that is the job of the ICC – to govern the game. If there are actual concerns on pitch switching there needs to be more clarity on the procedure (including timing) for pitch selection and enforcement of any relevant rules.

Re ceremonies, this is typical BCCI uselessness, and dare I say (as an Indian) the MO for our country. It was probably a last minute idea to have a ceremony before the Ind Pak game to generate more hype.

BCCI are ca@p at a lot of things. They released the schedule late and then still made some tweaks and the ticketing was a mess. Despite their best efforts to sabotage the tournament droves of locals have turned out to neutral games.

Fairly typical rant from the anti-BCCI playbook. After reading through this op ed about financial clout and imperialism and the dark force of the IPL, the author makes only one tangible argument – that the BCCI switched the pitch and that this is not kosher. Well, Paul, you might not like it, but it is within the rules for the home curator to recommend which pitch gets played on (pitches that have been prepared under the supervision of ICC appointed consultants). Australia are, after all, the torchbearer of rules and no grey areas (see YJB runout) so you’d think you’d be ok with anyone operating within the rules. And after all that pre-game whining about the curators doctoring the pitch to suit India, the game amassed nearly 750 runs with one paltry wicket to a spin bowler.

The author reckons the pitches in this WC have been “quality”, but they have been better. They have been fantastic. They have given both bowling disciplines a chance (perhaps too much in favour of pace IMO), some big scores and some low scores that have resulted in games of attrition (like last night, though that was also atmospheric conditions impacted). If you look at batting averages in this WC compared to the last two in England and Australia / NZ, they are bang on par so overall you can’t even say that the pitches have been too high scoring in favour of batsmen.

Bring on the final, should be a cracking game if India can hold their nerve and keep the pressure on Australia. My fear is the law of averages catches up with Shami and he has his worst day at the office and Australia set a huge total.

2014/15 WC versus 2023 WC that’s about an extra 10 runs per 50 overs. Tiny uplift and factoring in how batsmen are getting even better at smashing big scores, the basis for your comment is very weak.

You are clutching. A quick look at the stats shows the following:

2014/15 WC batting average 32.91 and RPO 5.65
2019 WC batting average 33.30 and RPO 5.56
2023 WC (so far) batting average 33.99 and RPO 5.86

Were the Australia / NZ and England WCs also slogathons?

Also I’d like to remind you that the semi-finals at the last T20 WC in Australia were played on used pitches.

On cue, hours before the game, a story broke of a late pitch change. And this was then extrapolated to Indian pitch doctoring by the usual feverish mob here. The stats for the game are a sobering slap in the face for the whingers. About 750 runs with only 1 wicket falling to spin.

The pitches in the world cup have been top class. Lots of runs and opportunities for spin and pace to take wickets.

Don’t usually care for weird individual records like most ODI one hundreds but seeing Kohli break Sachin’s record and pay respect to him and in the presence of Viv was a great moment. 3 all time legends in the same stadium.