India Australia Second Test Day Three Preview

So, here we are.

A day after the embarrassment that was the second day, most Indian fans have the brutal tour of England flashing in their minds. So what's next? Here are a few things we can hope to look forward to.

Honestly, there are two ways to approach today. The first is still to retain hope for a draw or an implausible victory. To have this be even plausible to consider, India have to strike in the first hour. India is down 291 at the start of the second day and likely have to bowl Australia out inside the next 100 to even have a shot, implausible as it will be. For this to happen Dhoni will need to man up. Dhoni was once known as an aggressive captain. The past two overseas tour has shown the flaw of such a categorization. To even give India a shot, Dhoni will need to  set attacking fields such as a 7-2 off side, bowling outside off or 6-3 with a short leg. Zaheer, Ishant and Yadav will have to bowl the proper line rather than simply bowling.

Alas, at this point this seems unlikely. Therefore, we can look for some moral victories. Among somethings to watch for. Avoiding an innings defeat. Sehwag spending more time batting than bowling. An Indian reaching a hundred, in batting this time. Sachin getting an over. Virat getting a half century. Gambhir looking better than Phil Hughes for once. Less than four men on the boundary to tail enders. 

Get ready, this will be a long day. 

160kph - The Quick Hits: India - Australia Border - Gavaskar Trophy Second Test Day 2 Bullet Review

• Embarassing.
• Poor bowling. Poor captaining. Poor effort.
• No bowlers bowled well today. Not a single one.
• I don't think Clarke has missed a ball bowled at his pads. Yet India keeps doing it.
• Ganguly was giving Dhoni a master class on how to captain - From the commentary box. 
• Defensive fields do not work. Especially when you are losing by 200+ and the batsmen are more than set.
• Virender Sehwag has spent more time bowling than batting. Make of that what you will. 
• Sehwag had a strech of a no ball four followed by letting the ball slip out before full delivery and having it land behind him. He would go on to bowl more overs for the rest of the day than all but Ashwin.
• Sehwag does not look like same bowler post shoulder surgery. Not a threat at all.
• Why was a Sachin not given the ball? His variations would be hard pressed to be worse than what the other Indian bowlers were offering.
• Zaheer looked terrible with the second new ball. Looked to be giving less than maximum effort in his run in and placement of delivery. No swing at all. 
• Ishant Sharma looked the best of the three bowlers but was the first to get a 100 - hundred runs allowed at more than 4 an over. 
• Yadav was poor with his line. He works best when bowling his natural out swinger in the full. Bowled too short too often and onto the pads or angling on to middle and leg stump. Poor line against excellent players off the pad.
• India's only hope is to score 700ish like they did two tours ago in Australia. 
• Finally, worst for last, Dhoni's field placements were terrible. Sachin was at deep point for several overs when Ashwin bowled a middle to leg line and not a single ball went to him during Ashwin's spell. There were too often when there were no slips at all. Defensive fields did not work at all as Australia managed to ramp up the scoring rate against the field. The Australians have shown a simple game plan that is easy to follow. Bowl off or outside off stump. Have a 7-2 or 6-3 offside field and the wickets will eventually come. 

My dream Indian XI

Gambhir - Best opening partner for Sehwag that India currently has.
Sehwag - Hit or miss but huge potential for match changing starts to innings.
Dravid - The Wall has simply been sublime this year.
Sachin - Greatest modern batsman.
VVS Laxman - Still very much class.
Virat/Rohit - Best of the young bloods. Virat preferred in India. Rohit outside.
Dhoni - The Skipper's batting may be a bit off, but is by far the best option for wicketkeeper and captain.
Jadeja - A triple ton in the Ranji season and has had good bowling form as well.
Irfan Pathan - Excellent Ranji season. Seems to be getting his swing back.
Ashwin- Becoming a bowling all rounder lately. Bats better than Dhoni in tests.
Zaheer Khan/Praveen Kumar - Bowling spearhead.

Dropping Jadeja for another quick such as Yadav may be preferred in seam friendly conditions.

Best batting line up ever? #ShortHistoricalSense

160kph - The Quick Hits: India - Australia Border - Gavaskar Trophy First Match Bullet Review

I may have a full post later, but here are some quick thoughts I took away from the 1st test form the MCG.

• Gambhir may not be deserving of his place in the XI. More edgy than the much maligned Phil Hughes. However, Rahane had not looked good either in the tour matches.
• Virat Kohli is my favorite Indian player other than Sachin, but he needs to be a short leash after the next test. He needs to score at least one half century (and not a duck in either innings) or Rohit should be given his place. Virat should also be allowed to bowl a couple of overs at his slow-medium place. He has decent control over his line and he can bowl the yorker that no Indian bowlers apparently can.
• India misses Praveen Kumar a lot. Praveen can swing the ball. A lot. When Ishant is bowling 152, where he bowls 142 in India, I can expect PK to bowl at 120s or even 130s with excellent control and ability to swing both ways in the swing friendly conditions of Australia. His recent tweet seems to suggest a desire to get fit to play down under. I hope this happens. 
• Mike Hussey played a match winning innings in his second innings. This, coupled with a tough adjudement of out in his first innings should be enough to guarantee his spot for a minimum of the rest of the Indian tour. 
• Likewise for Ricky Ponting. His twin half centuries should be enough to cement his place as well.
• Shaun Marsh did not impress much. He was amazing in his last BBL innings. Perhaps he should be a limited overs candidate. 
• The fast bowlers were all equally impressive. Siddle persevered and was more than handy with the bad showing excellent technique. Pattinson showed the most bowling skill and Hilfenhaus even managed to become a trending topic world wide. Good show from them.

Introduction

I am not good at intros.

I really am not.

I can be awakward  and clunky at the start and not allow my charm to flow through until later.

I guess I am doing that again.

So bear with me and hopefully it will be worth it. I created this blog due to a dearth of cricket blogs accessible to people in America. Cricinfo can be biased and slightly obnoxious at times and SBNation, the current leader of partnership of blogs has a very inconsistent Cricket blog. Therefore, I hope to create a blog that provides consistent output of news and information about the various tours and tournaments going around the world. I will not withhold the information that I was born in India and am an Indian cricket fan. However, this does not mean that my posts will read like BCCI propoganda (I support DRS [except maybe whatever HotSpot was used in India's tour of England]) and will criticize Indian players. (For example, Gambhir has been more edgy than Phil Hughes so far in Australia.)

So rather than becoming pedantic, I will end it here. Enjoy. Have fun. Take Care.