India vs Australia 2018/2019 Test Series Review

So India vs Australia most anticipated test series has ended and above expectation India has done well to win the series 2-1.
Scoreline 2-1 does not indicate India dominance in this series line 4-1 loss in England indicated which was series lot closer than scoreline suggested. Here India would have probably deservedly won a Sydney test if there was no weather intervention and in Perth test India did compete despite losing by 140+ runs.

So let us look at the star performers in this series.

Outstanding performer - Pujara, Pujara, Pujara
Only test where he did not score 100+ or 50+ score, India lost that test (in Perth) and in all other test India dominated and won  / were in winning position

Standout performers: Bumrah in Fast bowling and Nathan Lyon
Bumrah was the main reason for India to win the Melbourne test just like how Pujara was responsible for Adelaide test win.

Nathan Lyon contributed for Perth Win by taking wickets and keeping Indian batsmen and  was also responsible for Aussie being competitive in Adelaide.

In terms rating, I would rate this win above the 2011 ODI World cup win for India.

The main factors for Indian win were,

• Indian fast bowlers out bowled Aus face bowlers in their conditions
• In spin bowling Nathan lyon out bowled India spinners in first two test (in Perth India had no front-line spinner), but in MCG and Sydney he was out bowled by India spinners
• In batting there was no contest, and which where Aus lost. 
• Main reason for India win also was, the batting contribution came from other players like Pujara, Rahane, Mayank Agarwal and Pant and not limited to Kohli

So now off to ODI series. The onus is on players who were not part of test series or most part of test series to win this series. I feel Kohli should just relax in this series and not be aggressive.

So that would mean Dhawan, Raydu, MS etc need to contribute in Batting and bowling Bhuvi has to step up in absence of Bumrah

India vs Australia 2018/2019 Second Test (Perth) Review

As expected India lost the Perth test.
But I thought India gave credible performance to be in match despite doing badly on the first day of the match.

I thought now a days, the teams win the match once they win the toss, and mostly bat first. Specially when the teams who play away.
Recent examples.
England in SL won all the matches by winning the toss and batting first. I am sure the result of the series would have been different had SL won the toss and batted first in those matches.

In Pakistan vs NZ series, NZ won the matches where they batted first and Pak won when they batted first.

In Australia, India won the first test after batting first and Aussie won after batting first in Perth test.

Even in the England vs India series, I am sure the result would have been different if India had batted first in most of those matches (except the Lords test).


Now coming to the end of Perth test, let us summarize India performance so far.

• There is lot of blame from all former greats on the team selection, that India decided not to go with a spinner
• On this I feel Kohli was right.  Jadeja would not have made any difference in the bowling
• Also as Ian Chappel said, India could not have selected a bowler just because he better - either in case of Bhuvi or Jadeja
• So it is India's problem that tailendars do not bat as well as other teams, and this is known problem for long and India has not worked on it
• KL Rahul should be dropped from India team straight away and not be included in any Indian team for 1 year. He need to sort out his mental problem before he is selected for India team again
• Bumrah is highly overrated bowler. He bowls too short when he knows his wicket taking balls are the one which hit the wicket and more of good length or full length balls
• Hanuma Vihari definitely is better bet than Rohit Sharma for number 6 slot

Now off to Melbourne, and let us await for India bounce back there.

India vs Australia 2018/2019 First Test (Adelaide) Review

India has won the first test by 31 runs.

So my pre-series prediction of Australia winning this series 4-0 has been proved wrong in the first test itself. I am happy about it :)

It was a very close match - with India winning due to better batting from one of their top order batsmen in first innings and 2 top order batsmen in the second innings.

Australia lost because there was only one fifty from their top order batsmen in either of the innings and that made the difference. This was despite better performance from Australia tail compared to India, and better spin bowling compared to India.

In first innings the India top order crumbled and then rescued by Pujara and in the second innings all the top order batsmen except Rohit Sharma applied themselves very well, but tail crumbled resulting in the match being lot closer than it was.

Australia bowling first innings was good, and in second innings I think Michell Starc must be little disappointed with his performance.

Indian bowling in the first innings was good with all 4 front-line bowlers bowling well, but in second innings, Ishant Sharma disappointed with his frequently overstepping the crease which costed India couple of wickets, and Ashwin could not break in on fifth day pitch.

So overall both sides have problem to sort out heading into the rest of the series.

Next test is in Perth in a new ground (not the famous bouncy WACA), but even in the new ground it is expected to be lot more bouncy than other pitches in Australia.

So Australia has lot better chance to level the series in Perth Test starting from Friday.

India vs Australia Test Series 2018/2019 Preview

So the much awaited Test Series of the 2018 is here. Same expectation was there for India vs England series too. But due to India batting failures we lost the series 4-1. It was definitely much closer series and if Indian batting had done little bit well and India had bowled out England lower order early, the scoreline would have been reverse. Only test where England comprehensively won was in Lords. There again, they had better of weather conditions, where when England batted it was completely a Sunny day and when India batter it was mostly cloudy. So all in all India lost a series which it should have won.

Now coming to the India vs Australia series.

Due to absence of Smith and Warner, I think batting of both side can be considered equal with slight edge to Australia because of home conditions.

Let us look at each area and see which side has greater strength in particular area.

Openers
Aus has stronger presence in this because of form Khwaja, and KL Rahul is in poor form, Shaw is inured and M Vijay is coming back

Middle order
Probably due to V Kohli presence Indian middle order can be considered little stronger, but then due to poor form of other players, It gets balanced out

Lower Middle order / Tailenders
Definitely Aus is stronger in this with Paine, Cummins, Starc vs Pant, Ashwin and Co

Wicket keeping
Paine is much better Wicket keeper than Pant and also better batsmen

Fast Bowlers
On any given day Starc, Hazelwood, Cummins are much better bowlers than I Sharma, Bumrah and Shami. Specially Shami being erratic on a given day.
Aus has bowlers in Hazelwood and Cummins to give them control and Starc to attack

Spinners
Here Nathan Lyon wins hands down against M Ashwin
Nathan Lyon is very good attacking offspinner who takes wickets as well as contain. It is difficult to attack again Lyon due to the line and length bowls.

Ashwin on foreign conditions is a very erratic bowler and cannot be relied to either take wickets and hold one side. That will be the biggest difference for Aus to do well in this series.

So my prediction is Aus winning this series 4-0

India vs Australia 2018/2019 Preview

Much awaited India vs Australia Test series is starting on Dec 6th, before that 3 match T20 series has already completed.

My brief analysis on the just completed T20 series.
Series ended 1-1 with 2nd match abandoned due to rain in the second innings.
My reading was India were lucky to end the series 1-1 despite pathetic fielding performance. Field was one of the worst performance from India in the last few years, even with safe fielders like Kohli, Rohit dropping catches and mis-fielding.

Overall positive for India from the series was bowling of Kuldeep Yadav and batting of Shikar Dhawan, and Dinesh Karthick.

Bhuvi and Bumrah were below par which resulted Aus scoring runs in the end overs and making competitive total.

KL Rahul continue with his poor form and seems like not showing any indication to improve.

Rishab Pant seems like not learning from mistakes and his keeping continues to be poor.

On the overall India should have won this series easily instead of 1-1 against an Average Aus team who consisted primarily of hitters.

Test Series
Early indications of form suggest it will be difficult for India to go with KL Rahul as opener for India. India should fall back with M Vijay. Regarding wicket keeper - Rishabh Pant continues to be below average, and I would like India to go with Parhiv Patel who also has previous experience of Aus tour.

At this stage it seems like 3 seamers will be Shami, I Sharma and Bumrah.
Spinners - Kuldeep Yadav should play instead of Ashwin

Practice match is starting from tomorrow (Wed 28th) - and need to watch out for any the possible lineup from this match.

India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series - Review

• So after a promising start to the series, and at mid point it looked like Windies were going to create upset and probably win the series. But then they fizzled out.

In 4th ODI, in Mumbai although they got the run machine Kohli out early, they had Rohit to content along with Raydu. This match confirmed definitely Raydu as the number 4 slot for World cup. This match also brought out the best of Khaleel Ahmed, and potentially as 4th Seamer for the WC squad.

In the 5th ODI, It was even more disastorous performance from Windies, and there is noting much to write about this.

Overall from Windies point of view, they have very good young talent in Hope and Hetmyer who should be nurtured along with experienced Holder and Nurse. With some more experienced player joining the WC squad, I feel this Windies team can compete in England and can cause some upsets on a given day against top team like they did here in this series.

Coming to India performance, what do we know, what still remain concerns.

Top Three

• Rohit continues to one of the most dominant opener in ODI currently in the world
• Dhawan is bit lazy, and repeating the same mistakes again. So probably India needs to have a good back-up option for opener if Dhawan continues to be in this form
• Virat Kohli - continues to show why he is the Number one ODI player 

Middle Order

• Ambati Rayudu pretty much cemented his number 4 position in this series with couple of good innings
• Dhoni continued his struggle, and there are people now openly talking about replacing Dhoni with Pant
• Pant did not get enough chances, and in the brief period he was there at the wicket, he demonstrated how he probably can provide that thrust required in late innings while setting-up the target or chasing. Probably T20 series will give us more pointers on his ability and how he can perform in the international level in the shorter format
• Jadhav did not get to bowl, but showed in the one innings he fits well as a finisher role and part-time backup spinner

Spinners

• The 3 spinner slots are booked between Kuldeep, Chahal and Jadeja and probably it will be a toss-up between Chahal and Jadeja in the XI depending on the opposition and pitch

Seamers

• At this stage it looks like Khaleel and Shami are the back option for Bumrah and Bhuvi. Although Bhuvi himself has not been in a great form in ODI over last one year. But hopefully in the next few ODI leading-up to WC, he should get into the groove

Backup Batsmen, Openers

• At this stage it seems like it is going to be KL Rahul and Manish Pandey

So let us wait for Aus ODI series to see how well India can perform with this squad on more flatter surfaces which we are likely to face during WC in England

India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series - Mid series review

Before the start of the series, one of the wish list was that this series will closely contested than Test series. Contest so far is lot better than expected, and West Indies despite missing some of their stalwarts has exceedingly well and done even better than India. In fact at this stage I feel Windies are more well rounded side than India on following accounts,
1) Their openers have given better start compared to famed India openers
2) Their number 3 may not have scored as many centuries as Virat Kohli, but has been solid and almost them won them 2nd ODI and was significantly responsible for 3rd ODI victory
3) Middle order is pretty is strong than India with Hetmyer playing good attacking innings in all 3 ODI and Indian bowlers are clueless bowling to him. It is more of him getting out than our bowling getting him out
4) Lower middle order and tail end is very strong than India - as evident in all the 3 ODI
Indian tail starts from number 7/8, while Windies number 10 also scores decent 20

India have a plenty of problem in hand and is more magnified because of missing all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Kedhar Jadhav.

Let us look at the performance so far by individuals.

Rohit Sharma - Played well in first ODI and sub-subsequent ODI's got out early. Difference between Legend vs Great batsmen. These 3 matches have shown why Rohit cannot become legend while Virat can. Rohit seems to get satisfied with 1 or 2 hundreds in a series,  while Virat wants to continue to do well for team despite however hard it is stay there at the wicket and score runs

Shikar Dhawan - After decent performance in Asia Cup, got into the rott again. Frustrating them Dhawan is he gets out in similar fashion and not seems keen to learn from previous mistakes. Dhawan can be easily taken out through off spinner and if the weakness continues into WC, then India needs to think about new opener for WC

Virat Kohli - there is nothing to review. Simply we can say Great !, Great !, Great !

Ambati Raydu - Initially before the start of the series I was preferring Manish Pandey over Raydu. But so far in the series Raydu has done very well and seems like settling very well at number 4. He is good against spinners which is what is required in the middle overs and also decent against fast bowlers. If we can improve his fielding, he will become good asset for India in WC

Rishabh Pant - He got chance to bat in 2nd and 3rd ODI, did play small cameos and showed us what he is capable of. But both the times got out to loose shots, which he needs to improve. His ground fielding is not great, but then his primary skill is wicket keeping. so sooner or later he will move into that role, and he is definitely a player worth investing and groomed for the long run

M.S Dhoni - Continues to be good Wicket keeper specially for spinner (which what we will miss once Rishabh become full time keeper for India), but is other skill batting is going down drastically. He has been dropper from latest T20 teams, but do not think selectors and team management will be bold enough to drop him from ODI team so close to the WC. But do not see his batting getting improved - so he has become big liability for India while batting, while he is asset during fielding due to his keeping and passing on experience to bowlers.

Ravindra Jadeja - Showed Asia cup performance was pretty much to nature of wickets in Dubai. In flat tracks in India and the ones we will encounter in Aus, New Zealand, and during WC in England - he will not help much. So once Hardik is fit, this all-rounder slot will got to Hardik

Kuldeep Yadav - Bowled well in patches. Going for lot of runs due to incosistent bowling, but very much capable or taking wickets in the middle period and creating impact on the match

Y Chahal - After good performance in first match, other 2 ODI has not bowled that well, Seems like batsmen are picking him well, in that case India will need to seriously consider some off-spin talent as backup. He specially is very against left handed batsmen many of the teams like Windies, England, Aus have lot of left handers in the middle order. So Chahal will be weak against them

Mohamed Shammi - Was expensive in the first ODI, but bowled very well in 2nd ODI including lot of yorkers. Rested for rest of the ODI series. Definitely my choice to get into the team as 3rd seamer

Umesh Yadav - Played first two ODI, and was expensive. He has good yorkers, but does not seem to have confidence to bowl them consistently. Still I feel he is better choice as 4th seamer in this squad compared to talent we have outside the team

Khaleel Ahmed Played first and 3rd ODI, bot the times has been expensive. Need to still go through first class grind before becomes long term option for India ODI

Jasprit Bumarh - No 1 bowler for India in ODI, and now probably number 1 bowler across formats. Nothing else to add :)

Bhuvi - Bhuvi is struggling in ODI setup since almost 1 year. He did not had a good outing during ODI series in South Africa, neither in England. In Asia Cup also - he did well only in one match. He seems to struggle once the batsmen start attacking him and in slog overs do not seem to have great control. He needs to work hard from now till WC to improve his death over bowling to regain the number 1 death bowling attack.