Starc gets Vijay to spar at a widie. Breakthru we badly needed.

I don't think it is an early selection, his record over the last couple of seasons and early this season would be as good as any opener.  He would be quite close to the top 6 in averages available over the last three seasons. Maybe could have gone back to Joe Burns but Renshaw has not been making any runs so could not be picked.

Going into the Ashes I think the team should be, Warner, ??, Khawaja, Smith, Patterson, ??
The other opener out of Harris, Renshaw or Burns, the middle order out of Head, Handscomb, Shaun Marsh or even Burns.

Grazor

The only trouble with looking at batting averages alone, some play on easier batting home wickets.

Welcome to the forum, Test Fan.

I thought Pujara was out caught Paine off Lyon, but it was overturned.

Oh well, Hazlewood has just snared the other Indian opener caught Paine off an outside edge.

two best batters in now. Need to break this partnership

there used to be a penalty getting runs for adelaide but I hear its gotten tougher as a ground

Lyon has been very unlucky so far as he is gaining a lot of spin.

Kohli was very lucky in his first over!

i haven't been watching his bowling speeds but he looks to be bowling a tad quick

India are 2-83.

They lead by 98.

Grazor

I’m on my IPhone and can’t quote you, but Lyon is often bowling closer to 90kph.

Warne likes him bowling at 80-85kph.

Ed Cowan said on the ABC radio coverage that Adelaide Oval is now the hardest ground to face the new ball. Certainly a lot different to what it used to be.

Lyon does tend to bowl to fast

Glenn Maxwell is 30 and needs to deliver now or very soon if he is going to have a test career. He needs to overcome his natural over attacking instincts which have been encouraged by the shorter (fake cricket) forms of the game and become more disciplined. He definitely wants to do it but I am not sure he can do it.

Shaun Marsh is too much of a liability. Handscomb has not convinced me he has worked out his technical flaw. He still does not always protect his off stump. Jimmy Anderson..specially will work him out and give him a torrid time in their conditions.

Great discipline from Hazlewood. Seven maidens from his last 10 overs. Plus that wicket.

Shaun Marsh is not a test match quality batsman. However in the current side there is only one proven batsman, Khawaja. Add to that Smith and Warner makes 3. So do we go with the extremely inconsistent Marsh or a young player who has not proven anything. This series will tell us a lot, hopefully a few of this top six will prove themselves. Otherwise we will be looking at who scores runs in the second section of the shield season or going with the Shaun Marsh as there is no one better.

Further to the averages I put up earlier I have found some stats for players in shield cricket for the 2018 calendar year. The top 4 scorers seem to be,
Matthew Wade 968 at 64.53 I wonder what his record is as a specialist batsman versus a wicketkeeper batsman. Perhaps it would be a lot better at test level as well.
Marcus Harris 840 runs at 52.5
Matt Renshaw 812 runs at 47.76 despite a poor first half of this season.
Kurtis Patterson 795 at 46.76

Finch surely has to get runs in the second innings to keep his place as an opener. Maybe he could move to 4, 5 or 6 but he is not an opener.
Marsh and Handscomb could be replaced if they do not score in the second innings 

Patterson could stake a claim with a big score in the current shield match but he has to get to the crease, Hughes and Larkin are not doing him any favours and South Australia have resorted to bowling part timers to them so they might be there for a while.

i swear ball tracking isn't as accurate as people think

That always looked like it was going over

as a physicist I would trust myself or my colleagues to get that right with a computer program more often than an onfield umpire

it just provides the illusion of objectivity imo

India are edging themselves to a very good position. The runs are not flowing, the batting is not easy, so a wicket could lead to another one or two quickly. However if these two are not out at stumps India will be favourites to win the test match.

match starting to get away from us here

I expect to see 3 roads from here on in. 

It was foolish by CA to put India on a grass track.

I said it repeatedly before the series began.

Clearly CA did not follow India in England and SA where they outplayed Australia in equivalent.

Aus needs roads - India has overtaken Aus on grass.

Make a road - take the Indian bowlers out of the game...

Lyon gets Kohli and gives some hope

...and invite the Indians to a feast on these roads. Oz has a security blanket against that happening.. our quality attack. . and CA must back them to the hilt. I would stack them up against India's any day of the week on a grassy deck. Remove that blanket by preparing roads and with our brittle, and mostly green batting line up Kohlis boys will eat us alive. 

Yes - invite them to feast on roads if your quality attack isn't good enough to stop them feasting. But take their bowlers out of the equation. Take losing out of the equation and look to win if the quality attack is quality... Because your "quality" attack is much better for roads than India's is. See Safrica this year... Indians bowl well on grass... See England this year, India bowl well in swing...

As for stacking the Aus bowlers on a deck against India's - India already has a first innings lead... and they batted on the first day! On a grassy nippy track. Without their best opener and Kohli making 3. So there's no need for a Steve Smith or David Warner excuse. 

The Aus bowlers are not all that on grass. They're not the South African attack... They're not the England attack...  Pakistan and NZ are doing better in England that Aus bowlers of late. India in both England SA. The Aussie boys are road warriors. So give them roads. They are fast and tall. So give them a road to outshine the opposition like happens when Aus plays Ind, Pak, NZ or Eng on a road.

On a road - Kohli's boys will not get wickets... (Bar Bumrah)... Remember Sharma on roads in the past of Aus? See him on the grass? That's the difference.

We can disagree. But I called it before the series. I stand by it now. O'Keefe has the same p.o.v - we'll see what happens later in the series.

Green pitches for India? You may as well give them dustbowls to play on. 

India have not feasted on the Australian bowlers, they only scored 250 in the first innings. Pujara played an excellent tough test match innings and he was the difference. Australia got close because of the tail. Ashwin is the best batsman among the bowlers but the Australian bowlers are all better batsmen than the Indian fast bowlers. So more runs from the tail almost counter the quality of Pujara. 
India simply have the better batting line up, Kohli and Pujara are the best two players in either side by a long way, high quality batsmen. I am not convinced that Vijay, Rahul and Sharma are test match batsmen, but they have much better records than most of the Australians.

I don't think either attack is especially outstanding. I would take McGath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne by a mile ahead of this quartet of bowlers. That was a world class group of bowlers. Still Australia's bowling is miles ahead of it batting especially without Smith and Warner.

And the Adelaide pitch has just been prepared as it has been for any first class game in recent times although the groundsman was disappointed that it is a bit on the slow side. There was no decision made to give India any type of wicket, the groundsman just did the best he could to produce the best wicket he could.

nobody has comented on mitchel starks bowling in this test ?  i think he has been horrible 
your thoughts

The Oz ace in the pack is our attack.. take that away and we are inviting India to win the series. Look how much more effective our best seamer Josh Hazlewood is on a grassy deck rather than the roads he usually gets to toil on..

I do see your point. This is somewhat of a Catch 22 situation. All due to the poor and inexperienced batting lineup CA has left us with due to its recalcitrant stance against Smith and Warner. When we have to rely on a dud like Shaun Marsh to be a leading lite in our batting order.. Aussie cricket is in a dire situation.

Unless Marsh can assist us to a victory in this match he has to be canned for good. I would prefer either Cameron White or George Bailey to play the hard head role in our middle order. Both command tremendous respect and bring vital mentorship to the table. Is this pie in the sky thinking? Comments.