I would have thought that Head and Marsh would have benefited from having a hit in a shield game this weekend. Big ask to face up to Bumrah and Co on a spicy Perth pitch at the best of times. Wouldn’t be expecting too much from either of them
With the rain around this week, the pitch preparation may be affected. As it is, both teams seem to have strong bowling attacks and rather shaky batting line ups so it could be a low scoring game. One unusual aspect of the match is that 2 fast bowlers will captain their respective sides. With Rohit Sharma missing, Bumrah will captain India. Shami is a big loss for India so I reckon the Aussies might have the edge in Perth as long as one or two of the batsmen can dig in and make 50 + scores. I reckon 300 will be a good score at Optus.
Looking forward to seeing the young Indian bats in Jaiswal who looks an exciting type at the top of the order and of course Pant who smashes our bowling all over the park down here.
If Rohit Sharma & Shubman Gill both dont play in the 1st Test I wonder who their respective replacements will be in the top 3?
Good start by the Aussies.Day 1 ,first session.
Good start by the Indians in session 3 mate…Bumrah doing what the Aussie quicks did…only better. This test could be over in 3 days…battle of the bowlers it seems.
Yes the way its going it looks like India will be batting again before lunch on day 3, as has been raised before the whole aussie top order is a shambles
7 for 67 flatters Australia really - could very well have been all out before stumps
the rains obviously cooked things up but it doesn’t bode well already
What a train wreck. India showed a bit of character to scrap their way to 150 which may well see them get a 50 run lead which will be a match winning one on this wicket which is frankly an absolute disgrace.
The Australian top and middle order just didnt have the technique to cope with Bumrah on that pitch. leave McSweeny out because its his first test but Khawaja, Smith and Marnus had no clue. Head and Marsh were coming off no cricket in about a month. No surprise that they succumbed. Perth risks losing its test status if they cannot find a curator that can produce better than that steaming pile of shit.
I am going tomorrow and its not out of the question that the game could be done by 6pm, otherwise early on day 3. And we have the audacity to criticise Indian pitches
Nothing wrong with the pitch for mine Mike.
It has good pace and bounce, a bit of sideways movement but nothing extravagant.
It is just a combination of good fast bowling and pathetic inept Australian batting which has been posted on here for years but nothing is ever done about them.
The clown coach and his dopey selector mate are too worried about upsetting a few egos and not making the changes that should have been made a year ago.
Khawaja, Labuschagne & Smith are all done at Test level like Warner was but they can continue on for as long as they like as no one is going to drop them out of fear of upsetting Pats Posse!
Wow what an Indian fightback.
Some small cracks in the wicket.
But fantastic bowling all day
Rather watch an 18 wicket day, than a 3/350 plus day I guess. Agree with BH, more demons in the batsmen techniques than the Optus pitch. Bumrah is all class and the wrong fella to face if you haven’t had much of a hit this season.
Read somewhere that so far in Aust current 13 match WTC campaign - Aust top six are averaging Marsh - 44, Uzzie - 39, Green & Warner - 36, Labs, Head & Smith - 28. Surprised Aust are 2nd on the WTC table with those numbers.
Considering Carey is Aust top scorer and he has been making runs consistently in the SS, surprised Inglis with similar performances to Carey so far, and being a local boy , didn’t get a debut. Huge ask from here TBH, need a Carey 50 and cameos from Starc and Lyon to get anywhere near Indla’s first innings.
The only steaming pile of shit I witnessed yesterday was the Australian batting (which has been deplorable for far too long now) and the coaching!
The batting technique’s just continue to deteriorate year on year no doubt due to the t20 format which many here laud.
I have seen some of the worst batting in Test history come from the Aussies in the last decade alone-
Yesterday at Perth Stadium.
A similar effort in Hobart a few years back where Philander made us look silly all out for 80 odd.
Knocked over in the very first session of a Test in England where Broad took 8/15 or similar.
In South Africa we were 9/21 (and in danger of achieving the lowest Test score in history of 26) before a late Lyon cameo got us up to a massive 47 all out.
Schoolboy stuff and all from millionaire full time supposed cricketers!
Lyon just equalled Stuart Broad in test runs.
As the highest test scoring no 10 batsman.
Was surprised to hear that.Just assumed it would of been a West Indies player.
Australia in real trouble now - India’s batsmen are now making the pitch look pretty good to bat on
and after another absolutely and utterly staggering selection
Bancroft out first ball of the match against South Australia
seriously there are some very dull selectors in cricket nowadays
At least the match will see day 4 now…India will bat all day tomorrow, build a lead of 400 + and roll Aust before lunch on day 4. That first session on day 1 seems like a very distant memory.
The State keepers are making runs, so I reckon Philippe, Inglis Curtis and Pierson come in for Uzzie, Smith, Labs and Head. Promote Carey up the order, bring Webster in for Marsh, bring Rocchiccioli or Murphy in for Lyon…actually bring in both…apparently India can’t play spin going on the recent efforts of Santner and Patel …Siddle and Boland come in as the quicks, to inject some much needed youth. Into the side
OK i’ll eat my piece of humble pie because that " steaming pile of shit" that I described yesterday has flattened out to be quite a nice batting strip now. Mind you I still think that there was a bit too much juice in the pitch for day 1 of a test match but maybe it was for the best as we will almost certainly get a result now. Still no excuses for the pathetic Australian batting yesterday. If a couple of the batting order had somehow managed to survive into today, they may have reaped the rewards but none of them were good enough to outlast Bumrah.
Felt like a day of reckoning for this aging group. They looked lethargic in the field as the 2 indian openers ground them into the dirt.
Part of this felt like they wanted to keep the bowlers coming back for multiple spells as Pujara did on the last 2 tours. The 3 fast bowlers will not be able to play all 5 tests without getting cooked, so the selectors will be keeping an eye on the day- night shield game that started in Adelaide today. Both Morris and Richardson are playing and one of them may come into the picture for a rotation.
As for the batting, the chickens have definitely come home to roost. Khawaja, Smith and Labusagne are walking wickets but due to the lack of forward planning, there are no obvious replacements so they will all continue to get a game
Big test for Pats Posse today!
Hot day coming up, 2 inform batsman at the crease including the very impressive Jaiswal who I predicted before the series would be one to watch out for, a bowling line up of 30yo+ veterans mostly from Sydney who would be used to constant breaks with rain but it aint happening here. The likes of Kohli, Pant, Sundar, Reddy & debutant Paddikal still to come and well rested up now and plenty of runs ahead that this inept Aussie batting line up will struggle to get near.
If as we would expect it to play out now in an easy Indian victory will the Eastern States media finally put any pressure/heat on the likes of Smith, Khawaja, Labuschagne or are all still too scared of upsetting Pats Posse much like the clown coach & his joker mate selector!
BH it has been alleged that both the coach +Captain.During last weeks preparation for this test.
Both flew to the east coast to see band.Cold Play live.And lost two days in the teams preparation??
Jaiswal is as good as any Indian batsman we have ,ever seen.
5-0 Indian whitewash on the cards
that thing isn’t a coach mate
it’s a toy that kids used to get inside their cereal boxes