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Message: [QUOTE="1910, post: 2793489, member: 8272"] Few interesting things to come. None of the Test venues in the four Tests have hosted Tests before. So it's a huge unknown quantity as to what they're like and what they will do. That's an interesting risk by India. Batting England averaged 310 as a score and lost 4-0. They scored 477 and lost by an innings! You have to bat time in India as well. 150 plus overs which is what India do so well. England didn't do it well at all. India also set up first innings lead very strongly. India averaged 155 run lead on the first innings since 2012. We have so little experience in India and that experience we do have is not great. Warner averages 24 and Smith 40. Renshaw and Khawaja haven't played there; although Khawaja's Sri Lanka record is a terrible 19. Renshaw is going all Hayden and had a spinning track made up at AB. Handscomb played an A series 18 months ago and came home with 91, 0 and 0. Wade was out of the side for 4 years after the last India tour and scoring 113 in six goes. Handscomb plays off his back foot and is a great player of spin. I still claim the best player of spin in the SS. It's surprising he had limited success there. Martyn was sensational in 2004 playing off his back foot. He showed every batsmen how to score in India. We aren't great at batting for long periods of time. That's what makes the number 6 position so interesting. I thought they would take Head on the tour- while I am not completely sure he's ready for a Test match I would have thought he was at least ready to tour and in our top 16. The only reason I can think that he isn't included and Maxwell is- Head is another leftie for Ashwin and they went with Maxwell. I would have thought it was worth the risk but not wanting another left handed batsmen is reasonable. We will more than likely have at least four lefties in the side- Ashwin got 18/28 wickets against England being lefties. Keeper batting wise- Haddin was our last keeper to score 100 in 13/14 Ashes. Since then our keepers are averaging tick over 20. I know Wade has a Test 100 but I thought Nevill would get the nod on superior keeping and his batting is better although the figures don't show that. He was burdened with a score less than 100 six times in 17 Tests. That average of 20 has to be doubled. The interesting spots are going to be opening- where do you put Marsh and then what do you want the number 6 to be. They can go Marsh and the batting suffers or go Maxwell if you want another spinner or go Marsh with no bowling and batting tighter. Agar, M.Marsh or Maxwell or Marsh are the options and you could even go with two to strengthen the batting. Our number 6 this summer- Marsh, Fergurson, Maddinson and Cartwright- 94 runs and 2/116 wickets. That needs rectifying. You need big scores in India and your six and keeper out from the start won't help. Maxwell's weakness is he plays inside the line to hit over cover- which works a treat in one day games but won't over there- Jadja will find his pad or stumps. Australian need Smith and Warner to have 400 run series and average 100 like Hayden did in 2001. England had five get over 300 and lost 4-0. The 2013 debacle saw Clarke and Cowan the only ones to top 200 runs. You need big scores in India. Bowling. Our strength is our pace/seam. When we won in 2004 it was Kasper bowling the up hill terrible stuff and Gillespie and McGrath doing great close line that dried runs up. Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar scored three 50's in 18 innings. Not one Indian scored 200 runs apart from Sehwag. Starc, Hazlewood and Bird have to fill those rolls. If they can get amongst it then that will allow our rookie spinners to be bowling at unset batsmen. Six of the top 10 bowlers from other countries to do well in India are all quick. McKenzie, Gillespie, McGrath, and Davidson all had excellent records there. All of them averaged less than 22 and picked up more than 30 wickets. Our spinners. O'Keefe and Lyon are our front two. Lyon is still the country's best spinner by a mile and O'Keefe has strong control and accuracy. Agar- has bounce and like Kumble comes from a different angle. I watched Agar get out Kohli once in a A game! Swepson- has a great flipper but is as green as the 'Gabba. He does have great point of difference in that he's a wrist spinner but I didn't think that would be enough. Cracker has his finger prints all over this selection. Warne and Qadir had very average records in India- England's Rashid took 23 wickets in five Tests but went for nearly 4 an over. Rashid was experienced though and had played a lot of first class cricket. Swepson has 10 games for Queensland. Swepson did take four wickets for Australia A last year against India. Our bowlers bowl too slow and overspin. Our spinners need to bowl quickly and under cut the ball. England played two spinners and four seamers for some of the Tests and it didn't work because they just didn't keep any pressure on at all. Their batting is phenomenal- they score big scores and bat for long periods of time. Ashwin and Jadeja are their bowlers that keep me awake at night. Jadeja will bowl flat and fast looking for that front pad and he finds it. Ashwin is the best spinner in the world, no risk or doubt. The last time we played in 2013- 53 wickets between the two in four Tests, just recently against England 54 in five Tests. Ashwin has deception and when he bowls that carrom ball out of the front that goes the other way- you have to read it from his hand. I am not too sure we will be able to. The thing I like about the squad is that they have given the captain options. But that can also be a weakness. We have picked a lot of sort of players- bits and pieces. He sort of bowls off-spin, he can sort of bat at 6. How often do these type of players do well in India? England took two Ansari and Batty- Ansari scored 36 and took 3/163 and Batty 0/65. That's the risk we have taken. [/QUOTE]

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