Oz tour of India. Tests & ODIs.

[Donny]

1st Test: February 9 to February 13, 2023, in Nagpur
2nd Test: February 17 to February 21, in Delhi
3rd Test: March 1 to February 5, in Dharamshala
4th Test: March 9 to March 13, in Ahmedabad

1st ODI: March 17, 2023, in Mumbai
2nd ODI: March 19, 2023, in Visakhapatnam
3rd ODI: March 22, 2023, in Chennai.

---------------------------------

Allrounder Cameron Green is expected to join Starc on the sideline for the first Test, leaving Australia short of pace bowling back-up. - CA.

Er .. hello ?

Do the names Scott Boland, Jhye Richardson, Lance Morris, Sean Abbott, Michael Neser, Mark Steketee, Riley Meredith etc. ring any bells ?

[lazzadesilva]

Ahem: the other Richardson, Stanlake, Paris, the other Agar

[Donny]

"Victoria rising star Todd Murphy has stormed into Australia's Test squad for the Qantas Tour of India, joining Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson as three potential spinning partners for Nathan Lyon.

Swepson, who played four of Australia's five Tests on the subcontinent last year for a return of 10 wickets at 45, was favoured over white-ball leg-spinner Adam Zampa as national selectors today confirmed an 18-player squad for the four-Test Border-Gavaskar series."

CA

[Donny]

Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

[Donny]

4 spinners ? It's not as if there are lots of (any) first class matches.

... and no Harris ? Tough on him, again. Looks like they've gone with Renshaw as reserve opener.

[Donny]

"Victoria rising star Todd Murphy has stormed into Australia's Test squad for the Qantas Tour of India,

Touch of overkill to use 'stormed'.

He can only be there as cover for a possible injury to the GOAT. No way would 2 offies be picked in the Test XI. Esp. with Head in the team.

If 2 spinners are needed, for variety, Swepson looks to be shading Agar, in the 'spinning away from the right-handed bats' stakes.

[K]

"Handscomb, who has forced his way back into Test calculations with 571 runs in five Sheffield Shield matches this season, is the reserve wicketkeeper to Alex Carey in the 18-player squad with Josh Inglis not selected for the tour."

Hmm...

Imagine Pete keeping on a dustbowl.

[Pies4shaw]

Test batting averages in India for the players in that squad:

Smith - 60.00
(Starc - 32.87)
Renshaw - 29.00
Handscomb - 28.28
Warner - 24.25

None of the other bastmen have played a Test there.

Australia had best hope that SpecialK can reproduce what he displayed in Pakistan and that Marnus is a good player in India, otherwise it's going to be a long tour, watching wickets fall all around Smith (who has been, naturally, Australia's best-performed player in India this century).

In that context, it is worth observing that SpecialK at least recently excelled in sub-continental conditions (averaging 99.2 in Australia's tour of Pakistan). Marnus, on the other hand, shows all the signs of being just another one in the long line of Australian batsmen who are not much use on the sub-continent (he averages 70.5 here and 50.42 in England, albeit from a small sample, but just 34.00 in Pakistan and 24.25 in the UAE).

[Donny]

"Australia are set for a possible date with the white-ball sensation Suryakumar Yadav in the Test arena after he was selected in India's 17-man squad for the first two games of the eagerly awaited four-match series next month.

Another limited-overs gun Ishan Kishan has also been brought into the squad but there's no place for injured pace bowling ace Jasprit Bumrah, who is no guarantee to be fit for the final two matches of the series either."

CA.

[K]

So that's good news and bad news for FTB Smith fanboys...

The good news:

Bumrah out of at least the first two Tests. In fair conditions (not that he'd get them in India), he'd destroy FTB's defective technique. Remember the MCG Test where Bumrah got FTB LBW? There was no movement!! Bumrah just bowled a straight ball on leg stump. FTB did his usual swipe across the line to legside. He missed. Ball hit pad. Plumb LBW.


The bad news:

Jadeja is fit. (What was his injury?) Not that Jadeja is a great bowler. But he is SLA. And FTB has a known weakness against the ball that spins away ('cos of his defective technique of swiping across the line to legside).

[Pies4shaw]

^ Bumrah has never dismissed SPD Bradsmith lbw in a Test. He has dismissed Bradsmith just once in a Test - not that the facts are likely to stop you spewing bile. Thus:

[T]he real litmus test of a Test batsman has always been how they perform away from their home conditions. Bradman was a legend because he thrashed England home and away (2,674 runs at 102.84 away and 4.322 at 98.22 home). We can only speculate about what he might have done elsewhere because he only played Tests in those 2 countries. So, it might have been that he would have been a potato of Ponting proportions in India, or he might have been the best Australian batsman of all-time, there (that mantle is, of course, presently SPD Bradsmith's - the only Australian batsman to average 60 or better in India and, indeed, one of only 3 to average at least 50 there, the other 2 being Hayden and Martyn).

It is interesting to observe that there are only 3 Australian batsmen who have reached at least 3,000 runs outside Australia at an average of 50 or better, namely Border (5,431 at 56.57), Steve Waugh (5,083 at 55.85) and SPD Bradsmith (3,986 at 60.39).

None of the other "modern day greats" got near those achievements outside Australia. Thus, Greg Chappell made 2,595 at 52.95 and Adam Gilchrist 2,512 at 50.24. But other "great" Australian batsmen couldn't manage to make any significant number of runs away from home at an average over 50. Thus, Ponting made 5,360 runs outside Australia - but at the modest average of 45.81, which average sees him in the same bunch of "also-rans" as, eg, Katich.

You have described Ponting elsewhere as a batting great - he averaged 10.66 against slow left arm bowling in India. By contrast, SPD Bradsmith's average against slow left arm spin in India is 49.6. Which is, I suppose, a reflection of the fact that he hasn't been dismissed by an Indian slow left arm spinner anywhere, home or away, for nearly 6 years (last time was March 2017). If that's a "weakness", there are plenty of all-time greats (including Ponting) who would love to have been able to boast of being that "weak".

[Pies4shaw]

Just noticed that, of Bradman's 70 dismissals in Tests, 14 (that's right - 20%) were to slow left arm spin.

[K]

So that's good news and bad news for FTB Smith fanboys...
...

The bad news:

Jadeja is fit. (What was his injury?) Not that Jadeja is a great bowler. But he is SLA. And FTB has a known weakness against the ball that spins away ('cos of his defective technique of swiping across the line to legside).

Injured right knee in a ski board accident.

He's been out since the Asia Cup 2022.


I guess he'll be rusty, even if fit... Will he have enough prep to destroy FTB's defective technique?

[K]

Looks like FTB Smith may be Jadeja's bunny too.

Jadeja vs. FTB:

2013: 1/29 (119 balls)

2017: 3/122 (355 balls)

2021: 0/30 (60 balls)

[Pies4shaw]

^ Of course he is - that's why he has the highest batting average of any Australian all-time against India in India. It's just dumb luck. The same as every single one of his ridiculous set of epoch-defining batting records is just a fluke.

Seriously, you need to stop posting about Smith - you're just making yourself look like an arsehole who knows nothing about cricket.