https://www.cricketcountry.com/news/india-vs-australia-2nd-test-r-ashwin-rohit-sharma-ruled-out-of-2nd-test-hanuma-vihari-ravindra-jadeja-in-13-member-squad-777446

India has gone full retard and picked two spinners for Perth. Ashwin and Rohit are injured...

1 Vijay
2 Rahul (Shaw still injured)
3 Pujara
4 Kohli
5 Rahane
6 Vihari 5
7 Pant +
8 Jadeja 4
9 Sharma 2
10 Shami 3
11 Bumrah 1


What I would have done? Simple. Swap Jadeja for Kumar and that is the team I would have gone with.

Pattinson needs half a season to demonstrate match fitness.

Vihari can bowl spin but I think had nothing to do with his selection. He is the only other specialist batsman in the squad with Shaw and Sharna injured, he had to play.

With Ashwin injured I do not see how India can possibly justify bringing in Jadeja ahead of Kumar. Kumar surely must play. I suspect if Lyon was injured Australia would play 4 pacemen rather than bringing in Holland.

As for reports that Khawaja might open, normally I would not like it. However with only one opener in the squad, Harris, someone has to open who is not really an opener. At least Khawaja has done well there recently and him being there might take some pressure off of Harris and perhaps let him build a score. Still if Khawaja goes in the first over it might just open the door to the team being routed for a small score as there is no other number 3 in the team. Burns really should be playing this test match, the selectors have got this totally wrong.

He needs to more than just demonstrate match fitness if he was to get back in the test team. He needs to bowl well and be the best Victorian quick. At the moment Tremain and Bolland are out bowling him. There is no doubting the quality of the old James Pattinson, but can the new James Pattinson show the same quality?

Dhawan could have been put on a plane from his holiday home in Melbourne and Ind A has a full squad in NZ - trust me - they have more than enough batting options, like oh so many...

I agree Kumar should play...

Vihari was selected in the squad ahead of Dhawan and all the others, why would they go outside the squad when they have a player who averages almost 60 in FC available?

My prediction is, unless the hype about the pitch ends up to be nonsense, the side who bats first will struggle to get 150, definitely not more than 200. Both sides bowling is stronger than its batting.
However I have my doubts a very green pitch is also going to be a very hard fast bouncy pitch. We will see soon enough.

I heard India were playing four quicks and no spinner. Has that changed?

Paine is keeping Finch at opener. Is this a big mistake?

Boy did Warne lay into Starc in this morning's Tele.

For the first comment, yes.

For the second, Warne needs to do something more constructive, like coaching. He is too opinionated  - and negative at times.

yeah its not very useful and his suggestions aren't any better (his suggestions of on field tactics are first class mind you) so he is just undermining leadership really and being a pest

Agree on second point.

one thing that should be said is this oz team has more fight than any I've seen in a while

did we select subpar players that have a lot of determination? If so thats controversial but defensible

Agree. As much as we could use an enforcer in our attack to replace Starc. Pattinson has to prove to CA that his fragile body can stand up to a season of red ball cricket.

I think it is a question of lack of talent in the batting department. Across the Australia there are no stand out replacements for the Test  batters we have.

The players are doing the best they can, but in the age bracket of 27- 35, we have a paucity of batting talent.

I think this is becoming more applicable to all sports in western countries. Most kids' major passions are video games, phones, computers.

10 years ago visiting Dutch coaches in football were talking about it being an issue throughout Western Europe.

Determination is good. Capitulation is bad. I would prefer a no frills player that values his wicket than a showy one that does not.

yeah we could have players who average low 40s which would be talented enough to win at home and fail away

this mob I think can struggle at home and away because of their determination

When Cummins was bowling shorter spells in Asia, he was a terrific enforcer.

He had a smaller workload, because the spinners bowled so much. I think his action takes too much out of him to sustain his pace over sustained games, and within a game as his workload increases.

Sadly I think you have the problem nutted DC.

Another is money. Elite sports people are paid too much so lose respect for their sport. Take our bratty tennis players, Krygios and Tomic. They are an embarrassment with their displays of un Australian conduct. Our rugby league players are not much better.. In recent years many have been associated  with unsavory off field behaviour. Dragons champion forward Jack de Belin is the latest r/l player to be arrested for indecent off field conduct. JDB has vehemently dnied the charges. This hurts as I am a long time Dragons supporter. Even if  he is acquitted..mud sticks. So he has likely killed any chance he had of being a Kangaroo.

You have it spot on DC. If we had a more frugal second bowler.. Cummo could be unleashed. But with Starc in poor form we do not have that liberty.

DC you were talking about mods. I have repeatedly asked why my old username is still being used in posts. To no avail.

One has said he is about to post here starting from yesterday, and, look into the appointment of another specific  new mod who already posts here.

Post this in the mod thread I've started, Baggers.

 Jadeja has yet to play a test in Oz. That is a surprise.  

its a different art to spinning in the sub continent. He could do well or go for many

There is one salient point that has been overlooked. Australia is going into this Perth Test with one clear disadvantage as the series host. That being we lose our home ground advantage as this is the debut Test for the new stadium. 

Dont we tragics just love waiting half the day to watch a cricket match from the other side of our massive continent. Sure we do.

Ashwin said he has studied  Lyon's bowling in Australia in order to improve his poor figures when he  has toured here before.

I also read Lyon suggested he had to learn to back spin the ball more like the Asian spinners, on Asian surfaces.

Jadeja is such a small turner of the ball I wonder how much he can adapt. We'll find out i guess

So the ideal scenario is Timmy calls correctly and unleashes our pace cartel on the Indians on this green monster. 

over the last few years batting first even on tough wickets has been a huge statistical advantage