Just took a look at the deck and it does not look very green as the curator said it would be. It does have a a good covering of grass tho. Yes the toss will be vital.

There are so many arguments though.

Andy Flower. He batted while keeping at 53.7. Debut'd before Gilly. He carried the entire batting line up as well.

Lers Ames went at 43.4 while keeping in the 1920's and 1930's...

Then there's the freakish efforts of ABdV - played 24 tests as a keeper - averaged a whopping 57.41. In 59 ODI games - this climbs to 70 at a SR of over 100!!!
.
And these days of course I am a very keen fan of the batting work done by Jos Buttler in limited overs. This truly is exceptional. 

Gilly was a great player, but I feel he and a certain other famous wicket keeper from a different nation are overly loved and too readily talked into being the best batting keepers ever when there are more debates to be had.

Anyway - how does the weather look - we getting cricket today?

Reckon BCCI went with Sharma as his height is an advantage on Oz decks.

Height yeah, but accuracy too. 

U Yadav sprays it. 

B Kumar needs swing or seam. So obviously India believe the pitch to be a road.

39C tops. No sign of rain. Tuff work for the quicks in that heat. Oz may regret not picking Marsh.

Yep certainly not the  green monster deck mooted by the curator. Is this a backdown by CA.. sucking up to the BCCI once again?

We won't, he can't bowl. Or bat for that matter

India batting first, we are in trouble now

India win the toss. Thats huge

Rohit Sharma has been given the nod at number six. Good call to go with the experienced batsman. 

Indian team: 

KL Rahul
M Vijay
C Pujara
V Kohli
A Rahane
R Sharma
R Pant (wk)
R Ashwin
M Shami
I Sharma
J Bumrah

Going to be a hot day in Adelaide and Australia have gone with 4 bowlers. Not a great start. 

I dont mind our cartel having first crack on this deck. Should be some seam and good bounce for the first day.

Less then 1 hour before play starts and the excuses already appearing, too hot, not a green wicket, no M Marsh.... Really? That's test cricket! M Marsh doesn't warrant selection. A batting average of 26 is not a No 6 Batsman and he has had 30 tests to be given to prove himself, and with a bowling average of 42. 

If Finch and Harris fail that is the selectors fault. No Joe Burns. Joe was wrongly given out against NSW by a NSW umpire in Greg Davidson (no bias there) to a delivery that he missed by a mile (even the commentators said he was Not Out but no DRS at state level) from Josh Hazlewood who would have known it flicked his thigh guard, but the sportsman Josh is he carried on like someone shoved a hot poker up his you know what. He scored runs in the 2nd innings and followed it up with a man of the match performance against the best bowling attack in Australia in Siddle, Tremain, Bolland, Pattinson and Holland. Too much was placed on that poor biased cricket decision, No wonder Davidson has only umpired 10 games in the last 5 years and at 48 probably need to go to Spec Savers. 

Khawaja won't last long IMO he only made 41 and 18 in the same game as Burns but if you read the media he's Australia's saviour.
S Marsh should do OK being in Australia
Head and Handscomb have a lot of questions on them, but have only played a handful of tests between them compared to M Marsh
Tim Paine has a lot on his plate
Starc may bat well, and on his day is arguable the best bowler in the world, but unfortunately those days are too few and far between
Cummins is probably the pick of the bowlers, but questions over his injury recovery as not a lot leading up to this test
Lyons will do a lot of grunt work and will perform well
Hazlewood has a lot of questions about him as a genuine wicket taker, but it is in Adelaide which is his best ground taking 18 wickets at 19.44 but they were all in D/N tests, so it will be interesting to see how he goes.

There's heaps of reasons that don't involve conditions.

Without Shaw I'm predicting India's top order will struggle leading to a lot of pressure on the middle order and IMO only Kholi has the fortitude to stand up against Australia on their home grounds. 

PS Good to see you here Paddles, just got back from your South Island, what's the deal with all the rain, Got flooded in at Fox Glacier. But truly an amazing countryside.

Haha

I'm in the north - been raining a lot up here too.

Hope you had a great time despite the rain. 

so both teams have no all rounder - and India drop the batsman who is a useful spinner. 

This is ballsy. India clearly wants to bat Australia out of the contest. Rahul's form, no Shaw and picking Ashwin are still big concerns for India.

Yeah with that team youd think theyd be wanting 500+

His first post back and he is already bagging Hazlewood . Paddles you reckon I have a hate on Kohli.. well Mike has a hate on Hazlewood.
Mike Haze was the pick of the three quicks against your Bulls..pretty much bowled the Blues to the win in the second innings. 

Great start, ball actually moving around a bit

Superb start. Now for a few more

Balls moving around a bit which youd expect on the start of the morning. Would need another one or two here to make good use of the new ball

Yes Hazey!!!

Which coverage are you watching.. Seven or Fox?

Baggers I was just going to write that David Saker has done a bit of work with Hazlewood on improving his line to get batsmen playing, but then I watched his 3rd over... all way outside off and left to keeper, almost PMLOL at his 4th delivery, how wide was that!, but expected when the batsman scores some runs previously. Now he's put off with that 4, and an easy single to finish the over. I wonder how he will recover or will Paine bring on Cummins, who should be opening the bowling IMO.

Always of the opinion your most technical batsmen should be at first drop. Kohli fits that bill yet does not bat there.

Indians are struggling with this extra bounce. 

Improving his line? There would barely be a bowler in world cricket that makes the batsmen play more than Hazlewood. You only have to see his economy rate since debuting in the corresponding series four years ago.

Well contested topic, MD Crowe, Kohli, Root, Tendulkar best batsmen in their team but liked to be shielded at 4. Even Smithy more often likes to be at 4.

Whereas Bradman, Ponting, KW, Dravid et al made the climb anyway. Sometimes they want to, sometimes it because there are more senior players locked into their spots (KW had Taylor, Ponting had the Waughs).

Obviously, the further one slides down the middle order, the easier it is for batting.

When a batsman allows it to go through to the keeper with no danger to his stumps because it is to wide, you don't score runs (thus low economy rate to bowler) but you also don't lose your wicket (thus Hazlewood's poor strike rate nearly 60 isn't it? Compared to Cummins 48, Pattinson's 39 (amazing) and Starc 50. No I would say pretty poor line no need to play afterall it is test cricket economy rate isn't important, score at 2 runs per over who cares, as long as you don't lose your wicket.

What a catch! Kohli out