Trust you to wade into it.
Without a Carey in the world
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Fairly big difference in the attacks for this test. We played 2 right arm quicks, a left arm quick and an off spinner while they played 4 right arm quicks. Clearly Ashwin back in limits the difference, but Starc adds a huge amount of variety to our attack which they arenât really matching.
Starc hasnât really âclickedâ yet, either. Cummins has bowled well without a lot of reward. Hazelwood is always on the mark. Lyon is a seriously good bowler now.
Our attack will almost always keep us in a game and I think can get better yet. Problem is, they usually have to bail us out with the bat too.
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My reply was to a suggestion that Australiaâs attack is much-better balanced in the whole series. So I reckon my point stands.
True in the Perth test there was a difference in the make-up of the attacks due to Ashwinâs injury and the insane selection of Yadav ahead of either Kumar or Jajeda.
Overall Australiaâs best 4 attack is probably superior to Indiaâs but not by a lot. Starc is hit or miss as evidenced by his contrasting performances in Perth and Adelaide.
Starc always has taken time to get into a home series. As a race horse you would never back him first up!
Definitely appeared to be getting into better rhythm in this test.
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Going by Indiaâs track record, it now seems it isnât baseless. Whenever they come out with official statements you know it really did happen.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India said: âIt is âassumedâ that Kohli said, âI am the best player in the world and you are just a stand-in captainâ.
âThese claims were based on hearsay and the BCCI would like to bring into notice that no such words were spoken on the field by the Indian captain.â
It added: âThe BCCI got a clarification from the team management about the incident and would like to classify the reports as baseless.â
Wonder if they bothered to ask the players or the Aussie players?
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Explosive in-fighting adds to Indiaâs woes in Test defeat
Jon Pierik 18 December 2018 â 8:00pm
Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma directed a vulgar sledge at his own teammate as the tourists self-destructed in a hostile second Test against Australia.
On a bruising afternoon of the fourth day when Australia laid the platform for what on Tuesday culminated in a pressure-releasing 146-run win, Sharma and teammate Ravindra Jadeja went at each other.
The two men raged in their native Hindi but this was later translated into English. The footage was captured by host free-to-air broadcaster Channel Seven, but it did not broadcast the audio.
The incident unfolded when Sharma said to Jadeja: âDonât wave your hand at me. If you want something, come to me and say it.â
Jadeja responded: "Why are you saying so much?
Sharma replied: âDonât wave your hand at me. Donât take out your anger on me. Iâll take your anger and shove it up your ar_se. I will shove your anger up your ar_se.â
Jadejaâs next comment was not picked up by stump microphones but Sharma replied: âDonât tell me also. Donât talk bullsh_it.â
The incident, involving finger pointing and lasting for about 90 seconds, highlighted the pressure the tourists were under, squandering the advantage they had enjoyed when taking a 1-0 series lead in Adelaide last week.
It unfolded when Nathan Lyon was hit in the helmet while batting and play had stopped.
Fast bowler Mohammed Shami - who later took aim at selectors for not picking a specialist spinner - and another teammate had to intervene.
Australia beat India by 146 runs to level the series at one apiece heading into the Boxing Day Test.
Kohli was not asked specifically about the incident after play but said the increasing use of stump microphones was not an issue. Under previous ICC rules, stump microphones had to be turned down between deliveries, meaning a lot of the playersâ chatter wasnât broadcast, but they now remain on at all times.
âWith the stump mics and cameras and all these things, honestly, when the bowler is bowling, you arenât thinking whether the stump mic is on or the camera is on or not,â he said.
âAnd when you are facing that ball, literally, there is no one in the stadium apart from you and that ball. So, these things are totally irrelevant, and you are actually not aware of them when you are on the field. Itâs never bothered me, itâs never been something thatâs of importance to me to be honest. For me itâs irrelevant.â
Former Indian batsman Aakash Chopra said âin fightingâ may be too strong a word but admitted the spat had been âanimatedâ.
âWhen you have people in a group, there will be times when you have a difference of opinions,â he said.
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said the two men had clearly been at loggerheads.
âWho knows what they are talking about but it does seem pretty animated. There was lots of finger pointing. They were separated on a couple of occasions,â he said.
"They came back together again late and then Shami gets involved. He was just waiting at the top of his mark waiting to bowl. Things have, obviously, got a little bit heated between these two.
"Remember, Jadeja is just the substitute fieldsman. Ishant, probably in the middle of a bowling spell, might have wanted him at mid off or mid on - who knows what it was.
âNot just between Australia and India, but also looks like a little bit of in-fighting between the Indians.â
Jadejaâs role in the Test had also raised eyebrows, for he spent a significant amount of time on the field as a substitute despite the tourists having no injuries.
The tourists will be keen to start afresh in Melbourne ahead of next weekâs Boxing Day Test, for their week in Perth was forgettable.
Shami also turned the heat on Kohli, in his case publicly disagreeing with Indiaâs decision not to play a frontline spinner.
Master spinner Ravi Ashwin was ruled out of the Test because of an abdominal strain, prompting the tourists to field four specialist quicks without a frontline spinner for only the third time in their Test history. Jadeja, an accomplished left-arm spinner with 185 wickets in 39 Tests, could have been drafted in.
âThe team management makes these decisions. We canât do anything about it. We had one spinner who didnât bowl badly,â Shami said.
âIf you ask me, I feel there should have been a spinner, but these things depend on your management.â
Young all-rounder Hanuma Vihari claimed two first-innings wickets but the tourists missed a gold-plated spinner in Australiaâs second innings, particularly when tailenders Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood became difficult to dislodge.
Kohli, however, said the tourists had not wanted to include a specialist spinner.
âYes, we could have considered that. If you see, the rough (on the pitch) didnât have much assistance. It was just the pace on the ball that (Nathan) Lyon bowled that he got the wickets that he got,â he said.
âWe as a team didnât want to think that we definitely wanted to consider a spinning option on this pitch, especially having a look at the pitch on day one and how we thought it would play on the first three days, and exactly played out that way. We thought a fast bowler is going to be more productive and more helpful for us as a team.â
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Please tell me someone hasnât sooked about that comment.
How would I know? And i very much doubt it, probably got picked up on by mics or maybe one of the players was telling someone about it because they thought it was funny and that person said something to someone else and so on. Media pick up all sorts of things and write about them. I find it funny that the BCCI felt so precious about it they put out a public statement.
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Hasnât cricket journalism and media reporting descended into soap opera tabloid crap?
Itâs he said, they said, I donât respect ⌠ad nauseum bull-â â â â .
Guess itâs a sign of the times - bugger the quality of the games, itâs the click-bait social media-type garbage that proliferates.
Cue the Boxing Day test - Kohli makes 305 and Lyon takes 9/99, but the media headlines are India disrespect MCC caterers by refusing to eat desert during lunch breaks, former test player now commentator (insert name here) opinions that baggy green cap is now wrong shade of green, and wife of Indian player wears same dress as wife of Australian player on day three.
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Sounds like it is going to be a ripper of a test then.
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Stump mics havenât helped.
The only sport in the world that doesnât have a lot of directional mics listening in to everything.
Today sucks. No cricket. Might have to do work.
What day does Boxing Day test start
April 25.
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the home teams media and broadcasters now almost try to act like a 12th man against the touring team. All the big countries media do it now
They do whatever they can to make life as hard as possible.
If what was said from both kohli and Paine to each other, there is zero wrong with it. Just good banter from both sides. No abuse just clever remarks.
Boxing Day should be a great game.
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Anyone actually think Kohli was telling a lie anyway? Sure it may be cocky but fact is he is the best batsman in the world and Paine is a stand in skipper
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