Well, Indian team is smiling. They have a taken a 2-0 lead and cannot lose the series. Having said that there is much to play at Indore and in the last test. India have more or less qualified for the WTC finals in England. They will play Australia who have also qualified though there is an outside chance of Sri Lanka sneaking into the finals if they win 2-0 in New Zealand and Australia are blanked 0-4. That is out of the question. Australia may well lose 0-4 but for Sri Lanka to win in New Zealand, that is not going to happen. Anyway, the Indore India Australia Test has quite a few things to look forward to.
Australia will be much worried. They must be desperate to avoid a whitewash. Smith returns to the captaincy throne after Cummins had to cancel his trip back to India because family reasons. So far, Australia do not seem to have an answer for batting against spin. Probably, a couple of practise games could have aided their preparation. They chose not to ask for such games to their own detriment. Australia have lost 32 of the 40 wickets to spin. At Nagpur, they played of the backfoot only to be bowled or LBW. At Delhi, they were intent on sweeping anything and everything and ended up in a heap. What do they plan to do at Indore?
In the spotlight for India
As for India, it is definitely Virat Kohli. It has been way too long since Kohli has contributed meaningful runs in the Test arena. His poor form and combined with that of Rahul and Pujara is not making things easier for the team. India is lucky that this series is being played here. With such a shoddy batting lineup, any team would fancy their chances. Jadeja, Ashwin and Axar must not be expected to rescue the team time and time again. Axar has already done that twice including a match turning 72 at Delhi.
It is time for Kohli to stamp his authority. He is too good a player to be not scoring for such a longtime. First of all, he must look to score runs of the spinners rather than looking to stay at the wicket. It is not his natural game. It will merely be an understatement to say that Kohli has completely lost the art of playing spin. For him, it does not really matter what type bowler is, Kohli will invariably poke and prod and thereby do not move the score along. He is perhaps lacking in confidence. He doesn’t seem to think that he can dominate the spinners.
Few Ranji games could have helped but he choose not to appear for Delhi. India are in a stage where the core is getting old together. Rohit, Pujara, Kohli are all 35. We cannot afford for all of them to retire at the sametime. Young players must be inducted.
Pujara and Rahul
Which leads to Pujara. If not for that below average English County Championship Division 2 bowling, Pujara may not have comeback into the team at all. He was selected based on his extraordinary performance for Sussex and promptly failed at Edgbaston. If both Pujara and Kohli needs to be replaced, so be it. As for Rahul, I really do not know what to say. He is a liability.
In the spotlight for Australia
One, their game plan. Smith will do well to rewind to 2017 and see how he batted on that tour. Magnificent. He showed that when it comes to Test cricket, he is the boss. I know it is easier said than done but Australia will have to overcome the shackle that they find themselves in.
Two, the lack of runs from the blades of Smith and Marnus is the real worry. These two alongwith Khawaja were expected to score the bulk of the runs. While all the 3 have one decent stint at the wicket, none of them went onto to register significantly. This is what must bother the Aussies. Smith is the best Australian batsman of spin. If he is unable to find a way to tackle the Indian spinners, no one else will.
Three, Australia must discard the mentality of playing 3 spinners. With the inclusion of Green, Australia will need someone to support Starc. Boland is the only obvious choice. They need pace on these pitches and Starc is the only one in either team who has the ability to blast the batsmen. Starc’s finger injury is not completely healed but he is raring to go. Now that Green is back, Australia could even opt for the extra batsman with spinners expected to bowl the majority of the overs.
The pitch
Well, the Australian media is at it again. The pitches in India will turn fellas. Get over it and concentrate on the job at hand. They are making their team nervous by overly concerned about the pitch. One can only hope that Australian team is not carried away by all the hyperbole about the pitch. They were quite concerned about the pitch at Nagpur and Delhi and the results are right in front of their eyes.
Ian Chappell has however chosen to instill some sense into the Australian minds
“there are ways to thrive against slow bowling in India, but the current Australia side seem to not quite know about them. You don’t discover how to play good spin bowling later in life on a scarified Australian pitch just prior to a vital tour of India.”
Wrapping up the Indore India Australia Test
India will want to wrap up the series at Indore and thereby confirm the finals berth whereas Australia will want to ensure that they are not as embarrassing at at Nagpur and Delhi. India will also dearly want Rohit Sharma to win the toss. It is pretty vital in India. One thing is for sure. None of the Test in the series will be a draw. Rain is out of the question in India during this time of the year.
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