Rest of the World

First topic message reminder :

Duty281 wrote:

JDizzle wrote:

Duty281 wrote:So the most likely scenario is an Australia/New Zealand final at Lord's.

There are many things wrong with the WTC - points system is convulsed and perhaps not particularly fair - but Test cricket at neutral venues is something worth getting excited about! Shame it is only one game.

Yeah, I can't personally say that I am a fan of the WTC. The points system doesn't work properly, fixtures are of unequal value and weighting, and boiling an entire test championship down to one solitary fixture to decide the winner doesn't seem right to me.

That said, I think that Australia and New Zealand are the two best test teams in the world right now and, if that is the final, it would be the right fixture. A shame, as you say, that it's only one game and not, at least, a three-game series.

The current system is a temporary fudge to get around the unforseen situation and make the best of whatever fixtures could be fulfilled.

Had it gone to plan all the teams wouldve played home and away fixtures and had equal opportunities to earn points. That hasnt been the case, but at the same time I dont think anyone can argue theres not a clear top 3 teams with England sat just behind them and the rest of the world a significant step back from that.

One off game may be a bit unfair in that the toss could well play a major part in deciding it, but its always been about providing a focused big televised event rather than genuine competition. However the remaining fixtures pan out we should end up with two teams who deserve to be in the final even if New Zealand have just played at home. A long series in a neutral country just isn't viable in the modern calendar or that interesting to anything other than the hardcore fans.

KPF got it right that India went in with 5 bowlers. But those 5 includes the 6th, 7th and 8th choice seamers, with Bumrah, Shami, Ishant, Umesh and Bhuvneshwar all missing. The 5 also does not include the top 3 first choice spinners either. And it includes 2 non-choice bowlers in Natarajan and Sundar, who were at the right place at the right time. Combined experience of 4 tests. And they have just about combined to take 10 test wickets so far!
So they got Warner early, and Harris did not take his chance either. But Smith was already beginning to look ominous, and Labuschagne had his share of usual early struggle but looked settled by the end of the session. Sundar and Natarajan bowled with discipline, Siraj bowled alright. Shardul did get the ball to swing but looked profligate and spraying it around. At his pace, that is going to be the making of an absolute disaster. Saini didn't bowl as fast as was expected of him, he's been a big let down in that regard, what he had was pace coming into the series. But having been smashed around a bit in the limited overs, he seemed to have lost that extra yard of pace, and that hasn't been compensated with any more on the control front.
So as I said, anything less than 500 I'd take. But by not playing the extra batsman, they have reduced the chances of somehow batting out a draw.

I wonder when was the last time India played 5 frontline bowlers with a combined experience of 4 tests before this? Won't be surprised if its in the 1930s or 40s when they started playing test cricket.
Other than Thakur, nobody else have sprayed it around so much, but nothing much seem to be happening for any one of them. And at this stage, the only way a wicket would come seem to be a bizarre run-out or a poor mistake from a batsman.
And the track seems dead as well, pretty flat by the look of it, or is it the bowling, I don't know.

Labuschagne with the early initiative with the scoring after the break. And Saini dishing out 1 boundary ball per over.

How sad it is that both Ishant and Bhuvi recovered within the duration of the tour but couldn't fly into Australia, or Hardik or Axar Patel or Shivam Dube be flown into replace Jadeja.
Think in these Corona times, teams should now go for the South Africa model, they seem to be taking all the contracted cricketers for their Pakistan tour!

Sundar gets the Big Fish ! What a first Test wicket

87 hoodoo strikes and Smith has rather thrown it away there...

So Steve Smith won't be scoring that double ton this innings. A bit of a bad shot with the fielder being stationed there, but perhaps thinking Sundar is not Ashwin, Smith played it in the air and got caught at short midwicket.

Can we hope for less than 450 now?

Wade hasn't been very judicious with the use of his brains when it comes to shot selection this series. Can we have more of the same here? Please?

And Labuschagne continues to enjoy a lot of luck in this series...Rahane catches that 8 or 9 out of ten , though it was at a slightly awkward angle to him.
Would have been a massive scalp.

But now Saini has injured himself too ... Unbelievable.

msp83 wrote:So Steve Smith won't be scoring that double ton this innings. A bit of a bad shot with the fielder being stationed there, but perhaps thinking Sundar is not Ashwin, Smith played it in the air and got caught at short midwicket.

It was a poor shot. But I think India have generally kept the lid on Smith in this series through very good disciplined bowling to a clever field on the leg side. OK he got away in Sydney - too good not to do so at some point - but even then he didn't destroy them to the degree he's done in the past when set.

He looked well set today ; but his patience failed him then. Top marks to India for being able to work their plan even without their preferred bowlers

Dropped him again ! Labuschagne has a charmed life it seems...

May be keeper and slips a bit too deep. Made it a tough chance. But another opportunity for India to really up the pressure in the hosts .

Marnus gets his fifty again. Scorebook just says 50 not out. Not : 50/2...

Wade looking aggressive.

Went off for an hour or so, and I see Wade hasn't obliged me yet! But Labuschagne had, in fact poor Saini seemed to have bowled a good one that should have had Marnus, only for the Indian skipper to put down a very important catch. Labuschagne is now passed his 50 and looking set for many more. The Indian bowlers have kept at it alright, but Australia looking more settled.

India really need another wicket pronto , after those two drops and the loss of another bowler. Batting getting easier.

Here is KP_fan's man , Shardul , again...don't think he'll find much swing now...

India must have angered the most vengeful of cricket Gods to suffer yet another injury to a bowler. Batting currently very leisurely out there - Smith no doubt furious with himself at squandering such a simple chance for another test ton.

Australia clearly stepping it up. Labuschagne getting closer to that hundred he missed out on at the SCG and Wade is playing a lot more sensibly than he did at times in the series. That dropped catched is really hurting India here. Thakur is being profligate, and the rest of them are not looking very threatening for the 2 batsmen.

Australia right on top now and look on for a large score...

India badly hurt by the injury to Saini , putting far too much on the even less experienced bowlers. And of course if you are going to drop a player as good as Labuschagne twice in a session you are really inviting trouble.

Think India will need a couple of batsmen to make big runs when it's their turn or this is going to prove one match too many.

Hundred for Lauschagne

Australia 5 down for 228, and the new ball is 8 overs away.
But regardless of how they may end the day, this Indian bowling lineup can be proud of what they've achieved. Natarajan with a couple of important strikes to keep Australia in check since tea. Hope they would not let Green, Paine and the capable Australian lower order to undo this hard-won achievement.
With Saini injured and Thakur not anywhere near his best, all this can quickly unravel even now.

Paine and Green putting together a partnership... New ball just an over so away. India would hope to separate the 2 before close although we may not get all the overs in by extra time as well.

Paine is looking more confident as he has spend some time out there. There have been a couple of challenging deliveries from Natarajan and Siraj with the new ball, but nothing much alraming. Besides, they are hardly clocking 130 KMPH consistently.

Paine is beginning to play some shots and the new ball is traveling to the boundary a bit quicker. Is the day going to get undone for India after all that they managed on the face of everything going against them?

KP_F might be pulling on the whites for India in that first test against England at this rate

Pitch is dry, devoid of any seam and swing or spin...just bounce and if you know how to ride it...you  can hit thru the line......great pitch for back foot play

India pick 5 bowlers and are down to standard 4 with Saini going down to a Groin strain.....hope he can bowl again....i think he will by tomorrow be back in shape if its only groin strain and not a ruptured hernia. Groin strains can be minimized by wearing good under-wear & knowing how to wear them correctly

India hung in there.....didn't let Aus break thru......and if India can wind them up in next 100 runs...it would still be a good show by India.....150 runs...would be game even.....and beyond that Aus in ascendancy

Lot of talk about leaving out Kuldeep.....he is slow and loopy and needs some grip...and this ain't the pitch for him
Sundar with his him arm, fastish bowling with overspin is a poor man's Kumble / Ashwin...actually  much more like Umpire Dharmsena's offbreak bowling.

msp83 wrote:KPF got it right that India went in with 5 bowlers. But those 5 includes the 6th, 7th and 8th choice seamers, with Bumrah, Shami, Ishant, Umesh and Bhuvneshwar all missing. The 5 also does not include the top 3 first choice spinners either. And it includes 2 non-choice bowlers in Natarajan and Sundar, who were at the right place at the right time. Combined experience of 4 tests. And they have just about combined to take 10 test wickets so far!
So they got Warner early, and Harris did not take his chance either. But Smith was already beginning to look ominous, and Labuschagne had his share of usual early struggle but looked settled by the end of the session. Sundar and Natarajan bowled with discipline, Siraj bowled alright. Shardul did get the ball to swing but looked profligate and spraying it around. At his pace, that is going to be the making of an absolute disaster. Saini didn't bowl as fast as was expected of him, he's been a big let down in that regard, what he had was pace coming into the series. But having been smashed around a bit in the limited overs, he seemed to have lost that extra yard of pace, and that hasn't been compensated with any more on the control front.
So as I said, anything less than 500 I'd take. But by not playing the extra batsman, they have reduced the chances of somehow batting out a draw.

Hi Msp......the so called 6th, 7th 8th are not too far behind the 3rd 4th and 5th seamers.
Only Bumrah & Shami are in a class of their own A grade....alongside the best two or 3 in the world.
Nos 3 to 8 are all +/- in the same class....all B grade

It's a loss to lose both A grade bowlers...rest of the grieving is over the top manufactured by the media.
The glass half fuill is that we have about 6 or 7 bowlers worthy of being 3rd seamer and testimony to our depth.

Re. Extra Batsman...if Rahul was fit he would have played....but so low has the stock of Prithvi shaw with his "no-clue-bowled-thru-the-gate" fallen that Sundar deemed more capable with the bat

We are in the game...almost holding even...pitch is flat and we have a far superior top-6 than Australians

India havent done too bad to get Aus 5 down and keep the runs rate under control given the circumstances. Cant think of a time a test team has played so deep into its bowling reserves as India are, shows they have some fight in them which was also evident in the last test of course. To lose the toss as well left them way up against it.

Im not convinced by the selection of Sundar ahead of Kuldeep but the tail is still extremely long so understandable. Perhaps slightly negative but gives them a slightly better chance of making a draw.

Australia have to be red hot favourites to win this, but India aren't gifting it to them like a sri lankan picnic so far.

Losing another bowler though, hard to see them reproduces the heroics of the last test.

India battled away commendably well with their depleted attack. Unlucky to lose one of their bowlers again - hope Saini can get back out there tomorrow. But for a couple of dropped catches they might have really restrained Australia. Labuschagne rode his luck again - but he certainly has a knack of getting regular fifties and hundreds. Been more consistent than Smith lately.

I didn't see all the last session but it appears Green and Paine have established themselves and India will need to strike quickly in the morning or they will be up against it. Ball still new ; so one might bring two - or five. But I reckon Australia will sleep more comfortably tonight.

If you cant argue with Bess' wickets you certainly cant argue with Labuschanges runs. Absolute stand out batsman of his age group, South Africa must be gutted they didnt get on him.

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:KPF got it right that India went in with 5 bowlers. But those 5 includes the 6th, 7th and 8th choice seamers, with Bumrah, Shami, Ishant, Umesh and Bhuvneshwar all missing. The 5 also does not include the top 3 first choice spinners either. And it includes 2 non-choice bowlers in Natarajan and Sundar, who were at the right place at the right time. Combined experience of 4 tests. And they have just about combined to take 10 test wickets so far!
So they got Warner early, and Harris did not take his chance either. But Smith was already beginning to look ominous, and Labuschagne had his share of usual early struggle but looked settled by the end of the session. Sundar and Natarajan bowled with discipline, Siraj bowled alright. Shardul did get the ball to swing but looked profligate and spraying it around. At his pace, that is going to be the making of an absolute disaster. Saini didn't bowl as fast as was expected of him, he's been a big let down in that regard, what he had was pace coming into the series. But having been smashed around a bit in the limited overs, he seemed to have lost that extra yard of pace, and that hasn't been compensated with any more on the control front.
So as I said, anything less than 500 I'd take. But by not playing the extra batsman, they have reduced the chances of somehow batting out a draw.

Hi Msp......the so called 6th, 7th 8th are not too far behind the 3rd 4th and 5th seamers.
Only Bumrah & Shami are in a class of their own A grade....alongside the best two or 3 in the world.
Nos 3 to 8 are all +/- in the same class....all B grade

It's a loss to lose both A grade bowlers...rest of the grieving is over the top manufactured by the media.
The glass half fuill is that we have about 6 or 7 bowlers worthy of being 3rd seamer and testimony to our depth.

Re. Extra Batsman...if Rahul was fit he would have played....but so low has the stock of Prithvi shaw with his "no-clue-bowled-thru-the-gate" fallen that Sundar deemed more capable with the bat

We are in the game...almost holding even...pitch is flat and we have a far superior top-6 than Australians

KPF, I've been one of the harshest critiques of Ishant Sharma prior to 2018, but what would we not give to have him here!? Can we even compare Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul as swing bowlers in test cricket? Even Umesh though he may not be too far above say Siraj in terms of class, has valuable experience. Natarajan was hardly clocking 130 towards the end of the day, and Shardul was all over the shop despite getting more swing than anyone else. Saini, unless he can regain his pace, fitness, confidence and add more to his skill set, is not cut out for test cricket. Shardul and Natarajan are out there because of their limited overs credentials and timing and circumstances. Say someone like Sandeep Sharma is likely to be ahead in the pecking order. Or even young Ishan Poral for that matter. And Jaidev Unadkat with his recent domestic FC performances, should be a head of all 4 seamers who played today. So, these are not necessarily our 6th, 7th or 8th choice. Perhaps Siraj is the legitimate 6th choice, and Saini earned his claim through his ODI performances possibly. But that's all.

Any ways they didn't discredit themselves at all. Had the fielding been up to mark, they may even have had a day of great credit.
Between Sundar and Kuldeep, it was not a pure bowling selection. Not sure Kuldeep could have got much life out of this track. And in the wake of all the inexperience in the seam bowling department, we needed control from the spinner, and Washington provided that besides the big wicket of Smith. Don't rate his batting much, more like a number 8 on his best day, nowhere near Jadeja, or Ashwin at his best.

msp... Siraj is no less than Ishant and Yadav...and Saini in the same bracket
and Shardul is in the same bracket a Bhuvi swing and seam type......give him 5 tests...and some in seaming .

all these "3rd seamers" look more potent when bowling in the shadow of Bumrah & Shami
Natrajan is not a fair selection...his wickets notwithstanding he is not test class.....Mohd Khaleel the left arm seamer who was in the play juts before the world cup.....dunno where he is gone....he was faster and more skilfull

Sundar should be no less than Ashwin as a batsman I think from what I have seen of him in shorter formats

Enjoying hearing Bumble talk about the great West Indies batsman Rohan Kanhai and how intimidating he could be to short-leg fielders - both in how hard he hit the ball and how he warned them in advance. Years ago I pushed hard here (successfully, I think) for Kanhai to be accepted into our Hall of Fame.

Alfie - I know you remember Kanhai, do you get our comms on your dodgy stream?

Yes and yes... remember Kanhai very well. And enjoying Hussain , Bumble , Rob Key etc...

KP_fan wrote:msp... Siraj is no less than Ishant and Yadav...and Saini in the same bracket
and Shardul is in the same bracket a Bhuvi swing and seam type......give him 5 tests...and some in seaming .

all these "3rd seamers" look more potent when bowling in the shadow of Bumrah & Shami
Natrajan is not a fair selection...his wickets notwithstanding he is not test class.....Mohd Khaleel the left arm seamer who was in the play juts before the world cup.....dunno where he is gone....he was faster and more skilfull

Sundar should be no less than Ashwin as a batsman I think from what I have seen of him in shorter formats

Khaleel seems to have gone down in the pecking order. Doesn't have as much FC experience as Natarajan, and in T-20s, Natarajan seems to have clearly gone ahead. They both play for SRH in IPL, and Natarajan emerged as one of their best bowlers in the season and broke through to the Indian team on the back of his IPL performance. Khaleel on the other hand has had an average season before he lost his place in the side, and in the ongoing SMA T-20 tournament, he's yet to take a wicket in 3 games.
Shardul is an OK limited overs package, but surely not in the Bhuvi league in the longer format, just doesn't have the same level of control. And in the swing department, think Deepak Chahar is better than Shardul, though he also has a body that doesn't cooperate and had injured his way out of this tour.
At least, we are not going in with 3 or 4 military medium no-hopers, there surely is some depth. But I surely wouldn't want all that depth to be explored at one go!!

KPF, had Axar Patel and Sundar both been available, who would you have picked for today in the absence of Ashwin and Jadeja?
After Jadeja, think there are 4 spin bowling all-rounders worth talking about in the domestic circuit. Jalaj Saxena of Kerala, Axar Patel of Gujarat, Sundar of Tamil Nadu and Shreyas Gopal of Karnataka. None of them can come close to Jadeja's class, but in a crisis, I'd go for Jalaj, he is the best of the lot with the bat, and he has had very consistent numbers with the ball as well. He's 34 though, and may never get a chance to play for India.

They were talking up Riyan Parag's spin bowling, but it hasn't come up much in the last couple of seasons. He's very young and has time on his side, but at best he might become a batsman who can bowl a few overs and not quite an all-rounder. He hasn't played for India yet and is not very close at the moment, but that lad has something, and with hard work, can emerge as one for the future.

What happened to Aaron? I know his international career was a bit of a car crash but is he still capable of bowling fast? Cant be that old

msp83 wrote:

KP_fan wrote:msp... Siraj is no less than Ishant and Yadav...and Saini in the same bracket
and Shardul is in the same bracket a Bhuvi swing and seam type......give him 5 tests...and some in seaming .

all these "3rd seamers" look more potent when bowling in the shadow of Bumrah & Shami
Natrajan is not a fair selection...his wickets notwithstanding he is not test class.....Mohd Khaleel the left arm seamer who was in the play juts before the world cup.....dunno where he is gone....he was faster and more skilfull

Sundar should be no less than Ashwin as a batsman I think from what I have seen of him in shorter formats

Khaleel seems to have gone down in the pecking order. Doesn't have as much FC experience as Natarajan, and in T-20s, Natarajan seems to have clearly gone ahead. They both play for SRH in IPL, and Natarajan emerged as one of their best bowlers in the season and broke through to the Indian team on the back of his IPL performance. Khaleel on the other hand has had an average season before he lost his place in the side, and in the ongoing SMA T-20 tournament, he's yet to take a wicket in 3 games.
Shardul is an OK limited overs package, but surely not in the Bhuvi league in the longer format, just doesn't have the same level of control. And in the swing department, think Deepak Chahar is better than Shardul, though he also has a body that doesn't cooperate and had injured his way out of this tour.
At least, we are not going in with 3 or 4 military medium no-hopers, there surely is some depth. But I surely wouldn't want all that depth to be explored at one go!!

Deepak chahar doesn't have the same speed as Shardul at FC level where you have to bowl many overs
Shardul was touching 140kph and always above 136...that's very good for one who swings....unfortunately he was bowling a swing bowlers length ( pitched up) on. a pitch where hit the deck hard with good length is the better length.

Give him a few games.....Shardul will deliver......he has played lots & lots of FC cricket and has come thru the grind

msp83 wrote:KPF, had Axar Patel and Sundar both been available, who would you have picked for today in the absence of Ashwin and Jadeja?
After Jadeja, think there are 4 spin bowling all-rounders worth talking about in the domestic circuit. Jalaj Saxena of Kerala, Axar Patel of Gujarat, Sundar of Tamil Nadu and Shreyas Gopal of Karnataka. None of them can come close to Jadeja's class, but in a crisis, I'd go for Jalaj, he is the best of the lot with the bat, and he has had very consistent numbers with the ball as well. He's 34 though, and may never get a chance to play for India.

Sundar's entry into tests is situational ...he was in limited over squad and give corona / bubbles / quarantines...they cannot fly replacements in...so they have to make do who they have.

Ashwin will be fit for Eng test...Jadeja won't be ....so on Indian pitches Kuldeep and Ashwin will be two spinners.
The 3rd spinner slot should be given to a mystery spinner / wrist spinner or an experienced FC soinner ......There is Chahl & Shreyas Gopal and then I read there were some young mystery spinners....one in particular for Mumbai
Nadeem can still be considered......as spinners have a long life....and I agree with Jalaj Saxena being unlucky....a genuine spin bowling allrounder

Axar, Krunal, Washington are all T20 spinners. There was a  Jayant Yadav, who as a 3rd spinner and lower order bat did very well against Eng last time.....but has dropped from reckoning.

Against England, if Jadeja is not available for part or the whole series, think they should give Jalaj a go. Decent bat, decent bowler. And he and Kuldeep can provide Ashwin the support along with Bumrah, Shami and Ishant rotated in the seam bowling department.

Gooseberry wrote:What happened to Aaron? I know his international career was a bit of a car crash but is he still capable of bowling fast? Cant be that old

Varun Aaron is still around in the domestic seen and played for RR in the IPL in the most recent season as well. He still can bowl reasonably quickly, but like in the days, doesn't do much more than that. He's 31 and is nowhere near an India comeback unless he somehow end up doing a Natarajan/Sundar, being there at the right place at the right time.

msp83 wrote:Against England, if Jadeja is not available for part or the whole series, think they should give Jalaj a go. Decent bat, decent bowler. And he and Kuldeep can provide Ashwin the support along with Bumrah, Shami and Ishant rotated in the seam bowling department.

Wjat doo you think of 3 young wrist / mystery spinners ...and have you seen them closely....I haven't seen but heard good thmgs about them
Makrand, Ravi Bishnoi and Rahul Chahar....not much FC experience though

Howver Shreyas Gopal seems to be ripe with FC experience and pretty good stats and still not too old at 27

msp83 wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:What happened to Aaron? I know his international career was a bit of a car crash but is he still capable of bowling fast? Cant be that old

Varun Aaron is still around in the domestic seen and played for RR in the IPL in the most recent season as well. He still can bowl reasonably quickly, but like in the days, doesn't do much more than that. He's 31 and is nowhere near an India comeback unless he somehow end up doing a Natarajan/Sundar, being there at the right place at the right time.

Fair enough I just remember the hype train around hi at the time. I guess back then an Indian who could bowl over 140kmph was a big deal let alone 150 but seems he was a massive disappointment and maybe lacked the close attention to come back as an improved player. I could understand it if he'd been badly injured and simply not capable but tis there any kind of bowler programme where the BCCI works with players on the fringe of selection?



Bhuvi never really got as many tests as his returns with bat and ball maybe merited. Genuine mid paced dibbly dobbler, but so is Mohamed Asif, and I remember him terrorising England after being written off as bits and pieces county player a few years back. I always found it odd that he played a massive number of ODIs without doing much but doesn't get much of a look in for tests in spite of delivering when he did.

Its obviously in Indias interests to start looking at the younger players to improve in the long term, but gap filling for short term injury problems at the start of the England series could he be a consideration?

India still battling away, Sundar and Thakur have picked up a few wickets this morning as they look to keep Australia below 400.

All out for 369 after a spirited effort from the tail. Natarajan and Sundar having encouraging debuts. 369 should be more than enough, though it isn't the 400+ that looked likely yesterday afternoon.

India's B grade warriors pull it bak again
Given the match situation over night and my view of Par yesterday was about 375...India did well

sundar was getting turn and bounce...and isn't the change bowler made out to be by some commentators
shardul was good and natrajan....kept plugging away with straight line and good /full lengths

Now batting needs to deliver one more time....get a lead of 75 to 100 here

Aaarrghhh

That's a shame, it sounded on the commentary like Sharma was going well.

Looks like a draw is likely. Brisbane couldn't avoid the heavy rain today, and more is forecast for Monday/Tuesday. Think India would take that.

The Indian 3rd choice bowling attack did a remarkable job to restrict Australia to 369. Could have been even better had the catches been taken, and had it not been for Nathan Lyon having a bit of a celebration of his hundreth test with the bat. But full credit to the bowling unit, they really did a job that one can be proud of.
Then the day could have been entirely India's but for the moronic dismissal of you guessed it right the Mumbai Wonder! He seemed a million dollars in moving to 44, even putting Pat Cummins in his place, then got bored, decided the job was done, and absolutely thrown it away, holding out of Lyon 2 balls after driving a boundary. At 33, I don't think one can hope for Rohit to change and improve upon that pathetic temperament of his, may be until someone like a Devdutt Padikkal matures to make the step up, or KL Rahul rediscovers his inner test batsman, just let Sharma continue up top and hope for the best!
The rain that is smashing down, just aggravates the crime that Rohit did to his team. How could he have done it to the poor bowlers at the very least?

msp83 wrote:The Indian 3rd choice bowling attack did a remarkable job to restrict Australia to 369. Could have been even better had the catches been taken, and had it not been for Nathan Lyon having a bit of a celebration of his hundreth test with the bat. But full credit to the bowling unit, they really did a job that one can be proud of.
Then the day could have been entirely India's but for the moronic dismissal of you guessed it right the Mumbai Wonder! He seemed a million dollars in moving to 44, even putting Pat Cummins in his place, then got bored, decided the job was done, and absolutely thrown it away, holding out of Lyon 2 balls after driving a boundary. At 33, I don't think one can hope for Rohit to change and improve upon that pathetic temperament of his, may be until someone like a Devdutt Padikkal matures to make the step up, or KL Rahul rediscovers his inner test batsman, just let Sharma continue up top and hope for the best!
The rain that is smashing down, just aggravates the crime that Rohit did to his team. How could he have done it to the poor bowlers at the very least?

Rohit looked solid 3rd time in 3 innings....scored good runs and fell against the run of play....yet again

He needs to convert and while the frustration against him is justified....look at the glass half full...he is getting goodish runs against top most attack in overseas conditions ....and not let it become 2 down with 2 runs on board....for India.

A session is lost and if 2 more sessions are wiped to rain...leaves only 7 sessions of play.
there are only 2 probable ways of getting a RESULT given that Aussies need 18 more wickets

1- Follow-on enforced on India and to avoid that India needs 107 more runs.
While Adelaide showed collapse can occur anytime.....most likely Ind will avoid follow on

2- On the Other hand India needs only 10 wickets to win  ...and if they can BAT 4 sessions and get a 100 run lead...and then bowl Aus out for 150-180 in 4th inning...there will be still enuf time for them to Knock off the 50 to 80 runs

both result scenarios are low probability...Draw being an overwhelming high probability at this point....which will make India the happier side.

and applause for Indian bowlers who did not let Aus get away to 500ish ...which looked imminent at times.... and then avoiding follow on would have been quite hard. And of the new lot....Shardul has shown enuf speed and skills to challenge for a 3rd seamers slot even when Ind is on full strength and Sundar too remains in the squad as a spinner who can bat

Glad to see India showing some fight here. It'll feel a bit hollow if the rain decides the test here but they do deserve to take a draw from this series. If only they had the same resolve in didn't have that disaster innings on the first test, but some of the credit they are getting is from coming back from that rather than folding.

They are making Australia look pretty ordinary.

I won't be calling "draw" just yet. Weather is unpredictable and either side prone to collapses. But still rather Australia's position...runs on the board.