Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[JSRAW]

For number 3, need a tough and technical guy like dravid and pujara. Hanuma vihari could have been perfect replacement of pujara but management used him so badly and fucked up his career by moving at every possible position for quick fix. I mean this guy batted with one leg for 40 odd overs along with Ashwin ( struggling with back) and drew the Sydney test, which we were supposed to lose.

What about Ruturaj? I doubt he will find a spot in other formats for a while and he is technically sound and also doing good in the domestic league so he could be the perfect guy? If team management gives him a word like he will stay with the team for a cycle and go on and play your game then he could do something and find a place for sure.

If he fits the bill then so be it. Selectors or anyone shouldn't care much about white ball numbers or standing when they are selecting players for test cricket. Give player a long rope to succeed or fail.

Damage is already done in test format now it's right time to look for long term solution because India have long break from test format due to T20 world cup and IPL. BCCI and selectors can do good job just check players with good cabilities in test format and bring them into their pool.

Because I also feel sacking Gautam Ghambir is no solution just having good quality players in domestic preferable test format and also if they feel okay then having 2 coaches are also good because cricket is now have drastic changes and BCCI also needed to adapt them for the sake of improvement of the game. Even if they feel good then having two teams will be also good because this will surely bring good changes or having 7 to 8 players for each format are also not bad at all.

Having 2 coaches would've been ideal but it usually works only when you have completely separate teams for all format and that's not the case atm so could be tough. It'd be complicate to manage all format players and atm we have fair amount of players mixing and in scheme of things in every format, then workload issue is also there.

Sadly that's how things goes, broadcasters will move quickly and fans as well because schedule is jam packed with t-20 wc and IPL. Again, he'll face the music but sacking will be tough unless team turns against him, that's a quickest way to lose job in Indian setup.

I hope things get better for Sarfaraz but leaking dressing room stuff is frowned upon and that too when you are so young in your career. karun is a quick fix and he's touching 34 already, need a guy for a long run, could be anyone for number 3, given it's based on merits.

For number 3, need a tough and technical guy like dravid and pujara. Hanuma vihari could have been perfect replacement of pujara but management used him so badly and fucked up his career by moving at every possible position for quick fix. I mean this guy batted with one leg for 40 odd overs along with Ashwin ( struggling with back) and drew the Sydney test, which we were supposed to lose.

Despite recent setbacks, i genuinely feel that india has solid middle-lower order and backup stock is also solid (not much exposure in SENA tho) its just injuries and constant change on batting order disturbed the momentum.

One thing that is common with players such as Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran is that they perform exceptionally well in domestic cricket under helpful conditions and against weak bowlers, but when the time comes to face tougher bowlers and green pitches, they always fail. Karun actually put some effort towards this and played county cricket for Northamptonshire. But even that was of little use when he faced the England bowlers. So what is the solution here? While talking about batting, we are also forgetting the weaknesses in bowling, which is a bigger concern for me.

Likes of Ricky ponting, shane warne and many SENA players has a poor record in India but we don't judge them based on only this.Using it as an example of how we look at success at different playing conditions. I feel that we judge our players too harshly and purely based on SENA, it should one of the parameter but not the only criteria.

It's a same kind of argument that 2 days test match on green top is good cricket and at the same time 3 days test match on turner is death of test cricket. This sort of mentality is need to go.

In sarfraz case he didn't get chance to fail in overseas conditions yet. Easwaran is one of the unfortunate case, he does everything right but always shit the bed in India A, hence he's sitting out otherwise he would've made his debut as early as 2021.

In spin bowling we have good stock so not worried about much, it's true for spin all rounders as well.
What I'd like is captain and coach showing some confidence in likes of washi, he needs to improve with the ball if he wants to fill the shoes of Ashwin but he needs backing with the ball, you can't select him in the team for sake of it and not allowing him to bowl.

Seam bowling is concern but in overseas.

[Sithara007]

Likes of Ricky ponting, shane warne and many SENA players has a poor record in India but we don't judge them based on only this.Using it as an example of how we look at success at different playing conditions. I feel that we judge our players too harshly and purely based on SENA, it should one of the parameter but not the only criteria.

It's a same kind of argument that 2 days test match on green top is good cricket and at the same time 3 days test match on turner is death of test cricket. This sort of mentality is need to go.

In sarfraz case he didn't get chance to fail in overseas conditions yet. Easwaran is one of the unfortunate case, he does everything right but always shit the bed in India A, hence he's sitting out otherwise he would've made his debut as early as 2021.

In spin bowling we have good stock so not worried about much, it's true for spin all rounders as well.
What I'd like is captain and coach showing some confidence in likes of washi, he needs to improve with the ball if he wants to fill the shoes of Ashwin but he needs backing with the ball, you can't select him in the team for sake of it and not allowing him to bowl.

Seam bowling is concern but in overseas.

What I would say is that winning overseas has been difficult for the Indian team forever. Winning at home is the easier task (at least that was the case until very recently). So the focus should be on players who can perform abroad. And this is where the Indian team lacks suitable players. Remember VVS Laxman scoring a spectacular 167 from 198 balls at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2000? And that too against bowlers such as Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Damien Fleming. India needs this type of players at the moment. Given the conditions in domestic cricket, emergence of such players is unlikely.

[JSRAW]

Likes of Ricky ponting, shane warne and many SENA players has a poor record in India but we don't judge them based on only this.Using it as an example of how we look at success at different playing conditions. I feel that we judge our players too harshly and purely based on SENA, it should one of the parameter but not the only criteria.

It's a same kind of argument that 2 days test match on green top is good cricket and at the same time 3 days test match on turner is death of test cricket. This sort of mentality is need to go.

In sarfraz case he didn't get chance to fail in overseas conditions yet. Easwaran is one of the unfortunate case, he does everything right but always shit the bed in India A, hence he's sitting out otherwise he would've made his debut as early as 2021.

In spin bowling we have good stock so not worried about much, it's true for spin all rounders as well.
What I'd like is captain and coach showing some confidence in likes of washi, he needs to improve with the ball if he wants to fill the shoes of Ashwin but he needs backing with the ball, you can't select him in the team for sake of it and not allowing him to bowl.

Seam bowling is concern but in overseas.

What I would say is that winning overseas has been difficult for the Indian team forever. Winning at home is the easier task (at least that was the case until very recently). So the focus should be on players who can perform abroad. And this is where the Indian team lacks suitable players. Remember VVS Laxman scoring a spectacular 167 from 198 balls at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2000? And that too against bowlers such as Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Damien Fleming. India needs this type of players at the moment. Given the conditions in domestic cricket, emergence of such players is unlikely.

Winning overseas was always difficult for every team, not just india tho.

India has improved it's standing drastically in Australia and England by a country mile, without any doubt. It can't be said about them in India.

Need to improve in newzealand but it hard when you are touring them once in a blue moon, how do you expect them to win when they are visiting kiwiland just twice in a decade and that too for 2 match series.

India tour south Africa regularly and in the last 2 tour India came close to winning but failed to cross a line and the recent series was draw. Could have been anyone's game if it was 4-5 test match series. My big issue with this bilateral is they are hell bent on playing just 2-3 match series, considering the tough competition it should have been minimum 4 test match series.

Scheduling plays a big role as well in short series. For example before winning in India, Kiwis and Proteas' played series in srilanka and Pakistan respectively, it helped them in preperation against spin. India doesn't have this luxury when they tour any SENA countries because of tight schedule, it works out if series is long but in short series it always feel like they are going as tourist. Warm up games are helpful but it's not a real pressure game and pitch condition can be drastically different.

[B2Z]

Likes of Ricky ponting, shane warne and many SENA players has a poor record in India but we don't judge them based on only this.Using it as an example of how we look at success at different playing conditions. I feel that we judge our players too harshly and purely based on SENA, it should one of the parameter but not the only criteria.

It's a same kind of argument that 2 days test match on green top is good cricket and at the same time 3 days test match on turner is death of test cricket. This sort of mentality is need to go.

In sarfraz case he didn't get chance to fail in overseas conditions yet. Easwaran is one of the unfortunate case, he does everything right but always shit the bed in India A, hence he's sitting out otherwise he would've made his debut as early as 2021.

In spin bowling we have good stock so not worried about much, it's true for spin all rounders as well.
What I'd like is captain and coach showing some confidence in likes of washi, he needs to improve with the ball if he wants to fill the shoes of Ashwin but he needs backing with the ball, you can't select him in the team for sake of it and not allowing him to bowl.

Seam bowling is concern but in overseas.

What I would say is that winning overseas has been difficult for the Indian team forever. Winning at home is the easier task (at least that was the case until very recently). So the focus should be on players who can perform abroad. And this is where the Indian team lacks suitable players. Remember VVS Laxman scoring a spectacular 167 from 198 balls at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2000? And that too against bowlers such as Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Damien Fleming. India needs this type of players at the moment. Given the conditions in domestic cricket, emergence of such players is unlikely.

I cannot agree with you because India is very much ahead in cricket, they perform well at home field and also perform well abroad. But unfortunately, there may be bad performances, it is every team's good performance and then there will be bad performances. But undoubtedly, we have to accept that the Indian cricket team is very strong. If we put Australia at number one in the world of cricket, then we must also put India with them because India has been performing competitively and the quality of their game is very good, so it is expected that they will perform well not only at home but also abroad.

[noormcs5]

Pat Cummins has not been included in what is an unchanged Australia squad for the day-night Test at the Gabba.

Is this the confirmed news?

I heard that Pat Cummins might join the series and we may see him while playing the next games. Officially, so far, there is nothing going in favor of Pat Cummins that he will join the squad, but he is training and there are chances if the training goes all good, he might join the team for the next test game. At the same time, I think there is not much need for Pat Cummins to join the team because they are already winning the games, so what is next? They just want to have a win and that is it.

[Crypto Library]

I know Bangladesh has improved, and they are the favorites in this series, but I don't want to be overconfident. Every time I become confident in them, they never forget to disappoint me. I also expect them to win the series against Ireland. But do not forget that Ireland is not that weak in the T20 format. They have players like Paul Stirling who have been playing for them for over a decade. He is capable of doing explosive batting against a strong bowling lineup. A single player can change the game for their team when it comes to the short format of cricket. I expect Bangladesh to win against them, but Ireland should also play well against Bangladesh.

Dude, you were actually right, I actually had high hopes for the Bangladesh team that since they did well in the Test series, they would be able to do well in the T20 series as well, but unfortunately they did the opposite here.
While I had hoped that Bangladesh openers Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das would at least perform well, the top four, including these two, could only score ten runs together, which is a big shame. However, if Towhid Hridoy had not saved Bangladesh from a bigger embarrassment by scoring 83 runs off 50 balls, Bangladesh would have been all out before they could have scored more than 50 runs. 

[Zaka1221]

New Zealand Vs West Indies Test Series

Final part of tour of West Indies is three Test series which will start on December 2nd, and New Zealand begins as certain favorite, because of their recent wins in shorter series, and because they have advantage of being at home, where pitches are mostly helpful to fast bowlers. Such things as return of star batsman of New Zealand, Kane Williamson, is huge help and West Indies have big problem and have to rely on their fast bowlers and old experienced batsmen to show needed patience and focus to play well in five day format with important points to World Test Championship also at risk.

This tour match was between the West Indies and New Zealand teams in which both teams showed their brilliant innings. This match lasted for five day because there were two inning in this match one first and the second. In the first inning, the West Indies team gave a target of 346 runs. Tagenarine Chanderpaul and John Campbell gave a good start and gave a strong foundation to the match, due to which the rest of the players started to respond well. When the New Zealand team started changing the star team, their first two players were out in the beginning. After that, Mohammad Abbas tried to bring this match back to form but he could not succeed because teamwork is necessary for anything, which he tried his best from his side but the team did not support him at all, that is why he faced failure.

[Sithara007]

Winning overseas was always difficult for every team, not just india tho.

India has improved it's standing drastically in Australia and England by a country mile, without any doubt. It can't be said about them in India.

Need to improve in newzealand but it hard when you are touring them once in a blue moon, how do you expect them to win when they are visiting kiwiland just twice in a decade and that too for 2 match series.

India tour south Africa regularly and in the last 2 tour India came close to winning but failed to cross a line and the recent series was draw. Could have been anyone's game if it was 4-5 test match series. My big issue with this bilateral is they are hell bent on playing just 2-3 match series, considering the tough competition it should have been minimum 4 test match series.

Scheduling plays a big role as well in short series. For example before winning in India, Kiwis and Proteas' played series in srilanka and Pakistan respectively, it helped them in preperation against spin. India doesn't have this luxury when they tour any SENA countries because of tight schedule, it works out if series is long but in short series it always feel like they are going as tourist. Warm up games are helpful but it's not a real pressure game and pitch condition can be drastically different.

Duration of series is something that should be looked into. At least against teams such as South Africa (who are the current WTC champions) and New Zealand, they should go for 3 match series, if not 5 match. Also, playing a couple of warmup matches against the first class teams would help in preparation. India used to do that until two decades ago, but stopped after that. Also, the board can permit younger players such as Gill and Jaiswal to participate in 4-day domestic cricket abroad (county cricket in England, or Sheffield Shield in Australia). Even the South African and Kiwi domestic cricket is of good quality. 

[vivekdhyani1]

Cricket Australia officials will meet with Usman Khawaja this week and ask the opener to explain himself over criticism of the Perth pitch, as they weigh up whether to sanction him for labelling it a "piece of s***".

Khawaja raised eyebrows on Friday when he hit out at the surface for the first Test, just a day after the ICC handed it the highest possible rating of "very good".CA officials are believed to be disappointed by the remarks, and will speak with Khawaja in camp ahead of the second Ashes Test at the Gabba.

[UmerIdrees]

New Zealand Vs West Indies Test Series

Final part of tour of West Indies is three Test series which will start on December 2nd, and New Zealand begins as certain favorite, because of their recent wins in shorter series, and because they have advantage of being at home, where pitches are mostly helpful to fast bowlers. Such things as return of star batsman of New Zealand, Kane Williamson, is huge help and West Indies have big problem and have to rely on their fast bowlers and old experienced batsmen to show needed patience and focus to play well in five day format with important points to World Test Championship also at risk.

Both the T20 and ODI match series were won by the New Zealand team. So one can expect a similar result in the first test match that will be played at Christchurch. One can argue that New Zealand is playing on home ground, so they have some advantage, but the opponent should show performance that is not to be found in the West Indies team.

Recently, the West Indies team had a draw in a tour match with New Zealand XI so we can expect a little bit of hope that maybe in the test matches they may perform better. In that tour match, WI had some excellent batting where they lost five wickets and scored 346 runs.

[MinMan]

Pat Cummins has not been included in what is an unchanged Australia squad for the day-night Test at the Gabba.

Is this the confirmed news?

I heard that Pat Cummins might join the series and we may see him while playing the next games. Officially, so far, there is nothing going in favor of Pat Cummins that he will join the squad, but he is training and there are chances if the training goes all good, he might join the team for the next test game. At the same time, I think there is not much need for Pat Cummins to join the team because they are already winning the games, so what is next? They just want to have a win and that is it.

Yes, this is confirmed news about Pat Cummins. Australia announces team for second day & night test which is going to be played at Brisbane on December 4 fellow fast bowler Josh Hazelwood is also not available for second test.

After having big win at Perth Australians are feeling good with their current bowlers Mitchel Starc, Scott Boland and Brendan Doggett done good job just because of this they have unchanged side for the second test match. Brisbane is always good for batting but still things could be not easy for England after having defeat in just 2 days at Perth they needed to be done good in their practice match because this is a only way of having improvement into their performance.

Ref:
https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/13476369/australia-captain-pat-cummins-and-fellow-paceman-josh-hazlewood-to-miss-second-ashes-test-as-unchanged-squad-named-by-hosts

[JSRAW]

Cricket Australia officials will meet with Usman Khawaja this week and ask the opener to explain himself over criticism of the Perth pitch, as they weigh up whether to sanction him for labelling it a "piece of s***".

Khawaja raised eyebrows on Friday when he hit out at the surface for the first Test, just a day after the ICC handed it the highest possible rating of "very good".CA officials are believed to be disappointed by the remarks, and will speak with Khawaja in camp ahead of the second Ashes Test at the Gabba.

Tbf to khawaja, he only utter these parliamentary words for first day of the pitch, can't disagree with him much when 19 wickets fall in first day. He has a record of going full rambo against ICC ruling and always vocal about the rules & all. He's in final leg of his career so not sure if he's bothered about CA much.

Overall, think ICC rule book regarding pitch only mention limited seam movement, good carry and consistent bounce. Apart from that everything else comes into -satisfactory- bad- category so official only following ICC rule book which is not updated and clearly lean towards certain playing conditions, for example ; spin on first day raise big eyebrows.

Perth - pace dominated 2 days test match ( very good pitch)
Kolkata - spin dominated 3 days test match ( TBC). Historically they go with satisfactory and bad pitch.

It'd be interesting to see kolkata pitch rating, all self declared pundits especially from England already called it bad pitch.

[Haunebu]

Cricket Australia suffered huge losses thanks to the first test getting wrapped up so quickly which is why they are probably praying for the rest of the tests to last way, way longer in order to recoup some of those losses.

Hoping both teams provide better batting performances to provide more entertainment overall in the upcoming tests. Excited personally!

[Shishir99]

Dude, you were actually right, I actually had high hopes for the Bangladesh team that since they did well in the Test series, they would be able to do well in the T20 series as well, but unfortunately they did the opposite here.
While I had hoped that Bangladesh openers Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das would at least perform well, the top four, including these two, could only score ten runs together, which is a big shame. However, if Towhid Hridoy had not saved Bangladesh from a bigger embarrassment by scoring 83 runs off 50 balls, Bangladesh would have been all out before they could have scored more than 50 runs. 

LOL. It is good to see that you have come to the realization now. You should not take any team lightly in the shortest format of cricket. Ireland isn't a weak team in this format. They have played really well. The Tectors destroyed the Bangladesh bowling lineup - especially Harry Tector. However, credit also goes to their bowlers. They managed to take some early wickets, and Bangladesh was on the back foot due to that.

When your team loses the first four wickets, scoring 18 runs, you cannot expect them to chase 180+ runs. Matthew Humphreys has taken four wickets and become Player of the match. Congratulations to them!

[Rustam Meraj]

Yes, this is confirmed news about Pat Cummins. Australia announces team for second day & night test which is going to be played at Brisbane on December 4 fellow fast bowler Josh Hazelwood is also not available for second test.

After having big win at Perth Australians are feeling good with their current bowlers Mitchel Starc, Scott Boland and Brendan Doggett done good job just because of this they have unchanged side for the second test match. Brisbane is always good for batting but still things could be not easy for England after having defeat in just 2 days at Perth they needed to be done good in their practice match because this is a only way of having improvement into their performance.

That is mportant news of day before second Test is that Australia will lose its main bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, although they are hopeful about their new players, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and Brendan Doggett, who have performed well in last big win and now Starc has to be leader of attack. Although Brisbane pitch is usually good batting pitch, day night format and swinging pink ball will make game very difficult for England who will have to use their practice time well in order to play better after losing first Test within such short time.

[Crypto Library]

LOL. It is good to see that you have come to the realization now. You should not take any team lightly in the shortest format of cricket. Ireland isn't a weak team in this format. They have played really well. The Tectors destroyed the Bangladesh bowling lineup - especially Harry Tector. However, credit also goes to their bowlers. They managed to take some early wickets, and Bangladesh was on the back foot due to that.

When your team loses the first four wickets, scoring 18 runs, you cannot expect them to chase 180+ runs. Matthew Humphreys has taken four wickets and become Player of the match. Congratulations to them!

Actually, I made the same mistake that we common Bangladeshi fans do, we often forget that format plays a big role in a team's performance. For example, I compared the T20 series or format with the Test series and that's where I was wrong.
I thought that since the Bangladesh team did exceptionally well in the Test series, maybe they will perform similarly in the T20 or ODI format, but the fact that format is a big factor has been proven again. We also saw the Bangladesh team play well in the West Indies series in the ODI format but were whitewashed in the T20 format.

[Sithara007]

Actually, I made the same mistake that we common Bangladeshi fans do, we often forget that format plays a big role in a team's performance. For example, I compared the T20 series or format with the Test series and that's where I was wrong.
I thought that since the Bangladesh team did exceptionally well in the Test series, maybe they will perform similarly in the T20 or ODI format, but the fact that format is a big factor has been proven again. We also saw the Bangladesh team play well in the West Indies series in the ODI format but were whitewashed in the T20 format.

Ireland started playing test matches only in 2019, and since then they have played only a handful of matches. And test format doesn't favour the underdogs. It is played over the course of 5 days, and the impact from individual performances are muted. On the other hand, T20I offers more opportunities for the underdogs to pull off upsets. I always keep this in mind while placing bets, and it has proven right most of the times. For Bangladesh, test matches are not scheduled for the next few months, and on February they will start their campaign for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

[Crypto Library]

Ireland started playing test matches only in 2019, and since then they have played only a handful of matches. And test format doesn't favour the underdogs. It is played over the course of 5 days, and the impact from individual performances are muted. On the other hand, T20I offers more opportunities for the underdogs to pull off upsets. I always keep this in mind while placing bets, and it has proven right most of the times. For Bangladesh, test matches are not scheduled for the next few months, and on February they will start their campaign for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

In the current state of the Bangladesh team, I have no confidence in their performance that they will be able to do anything good in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup. However, I had a slightly better performance in the Test series with Ireland, but the way the Bangladesh team is batting in the T20 match again, I think they will attend the upcoming T20 World Cup only for a tour and will return home after the end of the first round.

[Rustam Meraj]

Ireland started playing test matches only in 2019, and since then they have played only a handful of matches. And test format doesn't favour the underdogs. It is played over the course of 5 days, and the impact from individual performances are muted. On the other hand, T20I offers more opportunities for the underdogs to pull off upsets. I always keep this in mind while placing bets, and it has proven right most of the times. For Bangladesh, test matches are not scheduled for the next few months, and on February they will start their campaign for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Exactly five day Test format is naturally bad to underdogs such as Ireland, as it involves steady good playing over long period, and individual performance is easily lost. T20I, however, is great leveler since game is short and fast and therefore, single moment of brilliance or single performance can completely change outcome and give underdog with far better chance to win. This difference is important at moment because Bangladesh is not focusing on Tests anymore and is focusing on T20 world cup in February, so their upcoming T20 matches are important practice and chance of surprise wins is high.

[Shishir99]

Actually, I made the same mistake that we common Bangladeshi fans do, we often forget that format plays a big role in a team's performance. For example, I compared the T20 series or format with the Test series and that's where I was wrong.

Exactly. A single player can change the game result in a short format of cricket. You have to perform constantly in test cricket, and you have to play well every day to win a test. But things are much easier for short formats. You will have to play better for a couple of overs against a team. A single player can play 20 overs. But a single player cannot surely play for a day or two. This happens rarely.

No matter how strong a team is, they should not take the opponent lightly. Bangladesh lost the T20I against most of the weaker teams. There was a time Bangladesh didn't care about Afghanistan. Today Afghanistan play better T20 than Bangladesh Team.