Australia would start as favourites, when the third test begins at Melbourne on the Boxing day. 1981 was when India won a test match in Melbourne. Australians have ruled us here, with the exception of the 2014 test match, when M S Dhoni and Ashwin batted time out to effect a draw. Virat Kohli has fond memory, as he smashed a big hundred with Ajinkya Rahane in 2014 test match. These two would try to repeat their sweet performances. Other staunch reasons for australia being the favourite are,
Captain's Trust
Indian opening batsmen and few others in the team, are not getting the support from the captain as expected. To win in overseas condition, a team needs to have a settled opening pair, else it would be tough to regroup even with match winners like Kohli, Pujara and Ashwin. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja are the two players, who do not earn captain's trust in crucial encounters.
Settled Aussie Line-up
Australians would not change their playing eleven, irrespective of the nature of the wicket. Nathan Lyon and Hazelwood are the prime wicket takers and Pat Cummins & Mitchell Starc are wonderful support bowlers and all the 4 would continue to hunt in packs, which would be very tough for Indian team. Tim Paine stuck to the same playing eleven, even after losing the test match to India in Adelaide. It speaks volumes of the trust he had on his playing eleven.
Ashwin's Injury
Ashwin is often compared to the likes of Nathan Lyon in this series and to me, their individual performances have contributed to their respective teams winning a test match. His Injury has come at a wrong time, when Indian team has the best chance to beat Aussies at their own backyard. Kohli would miss his services, as australian playing eleven has lot of left handers and Ashwin has a good chance to get the better of them.
Weak Indian Middle Order and Tail enders
The middle order and the tail order needs to be packed with bowling all rounders, which is crucial for stitching partnerships, that would be defining the match results. Indians miss this trick, while Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins are stitching crucial partnerships for Aussies, which is disrupting India's plans to effect a win.
Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane & Pujara are the three batsmen in form, while all the others fail to impress. This does not help India's cause, especially going into the boxing day test, with Australia winning the last match. Two new openers would add more pressure to these 3 batsmen.
Ravindra Jadeja is a good addition to the playing eleven. He would give his 100 per cent, as he always does. Yet, he would not be a regular feature, because he is a classic example of playing in case of an emergency and not the captain's obvious choice. One doubts Rohit Sharma's performance in test matches, as he would not put a heavy price on his own wicket, time and again. But, he is definitely one of the captain's favourite.
A promising opening pair might bring in some surprise for Indians, but Mayank Agarwal and Hanumant Vihari has to face the brunt of a settled Aussie attack. Australia would try to dominate from first session and win this test match to go 2-1 up, before Sydney. Indians are already on the back-foot and would try hard to stop aussies. A very good test match on the cards...
Settled Aussie Line-up
Australians would not change their playing eleven, irrespective of the nature of the wicket. Nathan Lyon and Hazelwood are the prime wicket takers and Pat Cummins & Mitchell Starc are wonderful support bowlers and all the 4 would continue to hunt in packs, which would be very tough for Indian team. Tim Paine stuck to the same playing eleven, even after losing the test match to India in Adelaide. It speaks volumes of the trust he had on his playing eleven.
Ashwin's Injury
Ashwin is often compared to the likes of Nathan Lyon in this series and to me, their individual performances have contributed to their respective teams winning a test match. His Injury has come at a wrong time, when Indian team has the best chance to beat Aussies at their own backyard. Kohli would miss his services, as australian playing eleven has lot of left handers and Ashwin has a good chance to get the better of them.
Weak Indian Middle Order and Tail enders
The middle order and the tail order needs to be packed with bowling all rounders, which is crucial for stitching partnerships, that would be defining the match results. Indians miss this trick, while Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins are stitching crucial partnerships for Aussies, which is disrupting India's plans to effect a win.
Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane & Pujara are the three batsmen in form, while all the others fail to impress. This does not help India's cause, especially going into the boxing day test, with Australia winning the last match. Two new openers would add more pressure to these 3 batsmen.
Ravindra Jadeja is a good addition to the playing eleven. He would give his 100 per cent, as he always does. Yet, he would not be a regular feature, because he is a classic example of playing in case of an emergency and not the captain's obvious choice. One doubts Rohit Sharma's performance in test matches, as he would not put a heavy price on his own wicket, time and again. But, he is definitely one of the captain's favourite.
A promising opening pair might bring in some surprise for Indians, but Mayank Agarwal and Hanumant Vihari has to face the brunt of a settled Aussie attack. Australia would try to dominate from first session and win this test match to go 2-1 up, before Sydney. Indians are already on the back-foot and would try hard to stop aussies. A very good test match on the cards...
No comments:
Post a Comment