The post is slightly incorrect. I missed some games in the may-august period from the last few years. But most of their success has been against other sub continent teams and west indies. They are very weak away from home

It was an incredible draw.

Before i read this post, I thought India were winning at home and away.

incredible draw

meanwhile I think someone needs to tinker with icc test rankings to make away results count for much more and count much longer - particularly if its an away result on a different continent

looking at Indias away form they play very few overseas tours which means their ranking is exaggerated. Their overseas form is abysmal - 4 tours for a solve win getting flogged in every away series

They are in reality probably a pretty average team

South Africa might be the best at the moment in a fairer ranking system....let me see

That was a great draw achieved by Australia.

Handscomb and Marsh batted very well from  a defensive perspective against a high quality spin attack. It was compelling viewing on the 5th day, whereas I could barely watch the 4th day as we were being hammered.

I posit this. If Shaun Marsh played his Shield cricket in Adelaide, Victoria and  NSW, he would have a higher First Class average. His home state is conducive to pace bowling, when his strength is against spin.

There is a good article by Jarrod Kimber on Cricinfo about the  Third Test. There are also other good articles on that site.

It was a tough day to watch yesterday from an Aussie perspective.

They hammered us. 

Someone else said that India often post very big scores on these sorts of tracks and that we needed to make 500 plus. They were right!

commentators saying lyon is too fast

he has rarely bowled a sub 85k ball his entire career

its baffling

Saha and Jadeja both have FC averages well over 40 even though their test match averages are below 30. Ashwin has a first class average of 34 and a test match average of 33.

Pattinson certainly returned to top form and along with Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins form a quartet of fast bowlers of high quality if they can stay fit. Not too far behind them are the likes of Bird, Sayers and Siddle who can also do a decent job. With Lyon and O'Keefe looking to be decent spin bowlers the attack looks okay, just need to fix the batting which relies heavily on Smith. Renshaw and Warner look to be an opening partnership for a while but apart from that Marsh and Handscomb are not currently being overly convincing. Maxwell has one great innings but needs to do more to hold his spot for a while.

.I was just about to watch the final day's play of the Shield. For the second successive game Tasmania has collapsed to be all out for very little! This time they were chasing 300 against SA for a victory.

Anyone calling for James Faulkner's inclusion in the Test team, I've seen him fail so much as a batter at Bellerive.

Will look forward to the Third Test resumption soon. I think India are in the stronger position at the end of the fourth day's play. Must admit Cummins has surprised me, but expected him to bowl more consistently over 145 kph.

I've just seen that Pattinson has destroyed the opposition in the Shield. If Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Pattinson are all  fit at the same time this next summer, the opposition will have to combat the fastest bowling attack of all time!

australia with their noses in front now

loss looks a 20% chance win 30% draw 50%

The reports that the pitch was going to break up on day two were totally wrong and it is still a very good batting track. India could get a lead although Vijay was a bit stupid to throw his wicket away.

think india are a little ahead of the game here to be honest

this pitch is a road but will collapse later

There is a bit of question mark about the Australian attack, Cummins in after one first class match in 6 years, Lyon with some problem with his spinning finger so if India do get away the bowling might start to struggle. 

I think the position is better than that as the pitch is going to deteriorate quite quickly and become a lot more difficult to bat upon. If it does it makes it a terrible pitch because winning the toss and batting first gives a huge advantage.  

And Kohli is injured and that might effect his batting.

This pitch is more similar to what they used in the India series. Looking at it 400-450 is par and probably a minimum batting first. If India get in on a pitch like this they don't just score big totals, they score them really quickly. Their plan will be if we get anything under 500, to get a 100 run first innings lead then roll us cheaply when the pitch breaks up and chase a small total if needed.

We need smith to get 200+ and 100 runs out of wade and the tail.

Excellent century from Maxwell. I am not a fan but he has shown qualities he has previously lacked, patience, maturity and good slot selection. He has built and innings, started off by getting himself and then accelerated the scoring as he got used to the conditions. It has put Australia in a winning position in partnership with Smith.

on maxwell's bowling he has a pretty decent strike rate of 70ish

which is similar to nathan lyons

the difference is his economy

if he gets some overs he could take a few wickets

time here is even more important that runs. If I was australia I would try to bat to lunch or a bit after before upping the anti. If we bat to tea we've taken most of the best batting conditions

Expectations are the pitch will start to break up and batting conditions worsen by the end of the second day. So if Australia bat past lunch then the chances of victory are extremely high.

India's bowling performance and general attitude was noticeably different after Kohli went off the field injured as they missed his leadership.

As long as Oz isn't being thrashed I've loved this series in India.

In the 4-300 on the 1st day, India bowled a greater proportion of pace.

Maxwell 80 odd not out at stumps!

If we still have quite a few wickets in hand by lunch tomorrow it will be difficult to lose

question is can we win

sadly 40 is pretty decent these days for first class batsmen

He still had done nothing recently to deserve to be selected. Averaging 40 in first class cricket is nothing special and Maxwell does not even do that.

haha I've been a fan for a long time

you don't average 40 in first class being ordinary

WRONG

He is a slogger, not a test match batsman. He does not have the temperament to succeed.

he has a first class average of 40 and can giver the bowlers a rest...

As Maxwell has been selected I hope India crush us. Any team that feels that it should select a shit player like Maxwell don't get my support.

preferences for mitch marsh's replacement

1. Khawaja or maxwell
....
....
28. stoinis
...
...
59. Agar

watch them select Agar and see him get man of the match :D