[PPS]

Team India hurtling towards an Innings defeat! Just shows the lack of quality bowling on display apart from Bumrah & Siraj to an extent. Some baffling captaincy from Rohit yesterday after lunch with the bowling choices completely shifted the momentum.

[AtheK]

I have no clue why rohit sharma is even in the team, let alone being the captain. He has been generally bad in Test matches and even worst overseas. He should just concentrate on trying to win the next champions trophy.

If prasidh krishna is our backup bowler for shami, god only save us. This test seems to be a gone case, hopefully we put up a better show in next one to atleast square the series. Wait for series win in south Africa continues.

[Mumbaiker]

Totally dismal display. Started with the bowling in the first inning and is continuing with the batting in the second. Sad state of affairs. I hope we are able to give them some target.

[Shreyans_Jain]

End of an embarrassing match. Really poor batting, and on a balanced pitch. One man show by Rahul in the first innings, and by Kohli in the second. The new crop of batsmen looked totally at sea, despite his coming in from the ODI series. It’s just bad application and temperament. These batting collapses have been far too frequent.

[harry10]

Another disaster.

Funny thing is you will see the same team playing second test with one change of Jadeja coming back for Ash.

This management learns nothing and does nothing. No wonder they have won nothing of substance since Rohit/Dravid combo started. Rohit's captaincy this game is one of the worst I have seen in recent times and less said about his batting the better. Zero aggression in captaincy and his body language entire game was shambolic.

I miss the Shastri/Kohli combo in Tests. Bcci and Ganguly are the real culprits for this debacle.

[dailydriver]

Such a contrast in the way the men's and women's test teams are performing.

Although at home, the wins against England and Austraila in the Mumbai tests reflect well on the future of women's cricket and of the Indian team.

[PreludeSH]

The pitch was out of syllabus. Both swing and bounce on the same pitch Showed lack of consistency and patience from both our bowlers and batsmen.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Such a contrast in the way the men's and women's test teams are performing.

Although at home, the wins against England and Austraila in the Mumbai tests reflect well on the future of women's cricket and of the Indian team.

Let's not compare it.
Mens team haven't lost a test series at home in last decade. Inspite of this test match debacle India has been best touring side since many years.

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

The pitch was out of syllabus. Both swing and bounce on the same pitch Showed lack of consistency and patience from both our bowlers and batsmen.

SA made 400 on the same pitch with there weakest batting attack ever and one batsman less. India couldn't manage 400 combined. Except for Rahul and Kohli everyone was a flop.

[Revvatron]

The top and middle order failures are catching up with the current team. Up until now lower order use to bail us out and bowlers would bowl out of their skin to give us precious away victories. Even in first innings if not for dropped catches we would have got out much earlier. All of sudden our strength which was fast bowling suddenly looks weak. They were just seeing out bumrah and siraj to certain extent and collecting runs from the rest. Shardul use to be good in previous away tours but now he looks like a liability, not sure if fitness is an issue. Ashwin for all his greatness, is used as part timer in away games either due to his lack of impact or maybe captain/coach don't trust him enough. He might even be dropped for Jadeja. We should have one primary spinner irrespective of conditions. Australia never drops Lyon, they don't even think of dropping him and if Lyon can be impactful then certainly Ash can play the same role.
But it is high time the batting unit steps up, can't expect bowlers to keep carrying the team on away tours

[vijaykr]

Originally Posted by Revvatron

Ashwin for all his greatness, is used as part timer in away games either due to his lack of impact or maybe captain/coach don't trust him enough. He might even be dropped for Jadeja. We should have one primary spinner irrespective of conditions. Australia never drops Lyon, they don't even think of dropping him and if Lyon can be impactful then certainly Ash can play the same role.
But it is high time the batting unit steps up, can't expect bowlers to keep carrying the team on away tours

There are a couple of other differences when comparing with the current Australian test team. There are usually only 4 primary bowlers with Lyon being the 4th with the other three being pacers. And usually between the 4 bowlers, they seem to be good for 25-30 runs when batting. Also there are other part timers amongst Head, Labuschagne or even Smith who are open to turning over their arm for a few overs.

We seem to always want 5 bowlers on away tours as there doesn't seem to be belief that the top 6 will do their main job of batting well. Shardul is always in the mix due to his perceived allround abilities which I've not seen demonstrated consistently. With Elgar's wicket yesterday he would have cemented his place further as the man who can break partnerships (though I feel it was more a lucky break given he'd been batting for hours and hours already and probably tiring). Ashwin for all his thinking ability, variations and wiles doesn't seem to be impactful enough with the ball overseas. Probably the repeated snubs in not showing confidence in his ability and not giving him enough opportunities to bowl even when included in the XI is playing on his mind. Not playing him in the WTC finals is a travesty and difficult to digest still. I'm a great fan of his and hope he comes good in the England series at home.

Jadeja first brings a fielding skill sorely lacking in the team and then batting or bowling ability depending on the day, conditions and pitch. I don't know that he would have been more effective than Ashwin in the Centurion pitch bowling but maybe a very small edge with batting given Ashwin's double failures with the bat. Fielding would've been far better given that Ashwin seems content to escort the ball to the boundary from covers or midoff instead of putting in a dive once in a while.

Jaiswal looks way out of his depth in Tests or maybe it's the quality of the bowling he had to face. Hopefully he'll redeem himself in the next one. For all the talk of the prodigious talent in this team, come a stem test all of them falter together. Wish someone had stayed with KL in the first innings and one more with the King in the 2nd, but it was not to be.

Too much hype around final frontier breach etc is not helping them I guess. At least now they have a clear task ahead. Don't lose the series and come back with shared honours.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by AtheK

I have no clue why rohit sharma is even in the team, let alone being the captain. He has been generally bad in Test matches and even worst overseas.

Rohit has a poor record in SA! He's a late bloomer in Tests as an opener. He had decent figures though, most them at home & in England.

He should just concentrate on trying to win the next champions trophy.

I feel he needs to retire from white ball formats & concentrate solely on Tests! He doesn't have the fitness levels of Virat to play for too long.

If prasidh krishna is our backup bowler for shami, god only save us.

There clearly isn't anyone who's ready to take the mantle in Test Cricket. Ishant used to do the job of a workhorse when he was around. Umesh was highly inconsistent but somewhat effective in home conditions. Bhuvneshwar did not have a longish Test career either. Prasidh has only played 12 FC games! Mukesh Kumar is an experienced domestic bowler but clearly there is a void.

Originally Posted by harry10

Zero aggression in captaincy and his body language entire game was shambolic.

Body language in the 1st session of Day 3 was really surprising as SA were only about 15 runs ahead. Clearly they were not willing to put up a fight.

Originally Posted by Revvatron

Ashwin for all his greatness, is used as part timer in away games either due to his lack of impact or maybe captain/coach don't trust him enough.

If I recollect Ashwin only bowled 11 out of the 80 odd overs! He did a decent job & should have been used more considering the fact that Shardul-Prasidh were leaking runs. Can't expect Ashwin to pick wickets on such pitches, just do the holding job which he did to an extent.

Originally Posted by vijaykr

Jaiswal looks way out of his depth in Tests or maybe it's the quality of the bowling he had to face. Hopefully he'll redeem himself in the next one.

Jaiswal wouldn't have faced this quality of bowling in domestic cricket nor encountered this sort of pitch! He definitely has the talent. Needs to be given a longer run.

[sahil624]

What a win by Australia in the second test. They are pretty difficult to beat at home and this win shows why. Pakistan were in the game chasing 317 and Australia upped their game so beautifully in the last one hour. Brilliant test match.

[vijaykr]

Originally Posted by sahil624

What a win by Australia in the second test. They are pretty difficult to beat at home and this win shows why. Pakistan were in the game chasing 317 and Australia upped their game so beautifully in the last one hour. Brilliant test match.

For sure, Australia know how to finish off matches and rarely allow other teams a chance once they get into a winning position. We learnt this to our cost unfortunately in the ODI and WTC finals this year.

Pakistan have only themselves to blame with their atrocious fielding at this level which enabled AUS to set a much bigger target.

All this said, our last two test series victories in Australia is a fabulous testament to our team's resilience in the face of significant oddsn Those wins are very sweet considering the reputation of Australia in their home conditions.

[sgiitk]

Earlier, we had some First Class matches interspersed. Today, they are not. I suggest one or two of these before each phase, T20, F50, and tests. Allows the visitors to get acclimatized.

I am sure the boards can afford to lose some moolah.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Earlier we had some First Class matches interspersed.

This is a great point. Need to check, but have we had any of these, some matches against A-sides before Test tours? And is that a trend with all touring Test teams these days? My recent memory says that is the case, because of the packed calendar, but might be wrong.