Agree SCG, this Aussie team is without a doubt the best team in the world at the moment (and recently too) and I actually think they are playing the second best team in the WTC final. India is nowhere near it, and won’t be for a while.

FWIW, I think during Kohli’s captaincy (before the WTC format was introduced) India held every bilateral trophy (if there was a physical trophy) as well. I emphasise “think” so am happy to be corrected. And this achievement never got as much air time as it is right now for Australia.

England: Won in 2016 at home
Australia: Won in 2017 at home
South Africa: Won in 2015 at home
West Indies: Won in 2016 away
New Zealand: Won in 2016 at home
Pakistan: Won in 2007 at home
Sri Lanka: Won in 2017 away
Zimbabwe: Won in 2005 away
Bangladesh: Won in 2017 at home

Yup, the de facto 2 tier system is already in place. Here is the breakdown of Australia and India versus the following lower revenue generating teams in Tests over the past 10 years.

Australia: total 30
v Bangladesh: 4
v South Africa: 10
v Sri Lanka: 7
v West Indies: 9

India: total 45
v Afghanistan: 1
v Bangladesh: 8
v South Africa: 15
v Sri Lanka: 11
v West Indies: 10

Of course India doesn’t play Pakistan, so needs to fill that void. But I was surprised to learn India played more matches against the Saffers than Australia did. But out of Australia and India, it looks like Australia has already shown it’s support for the 2 tier system.

Enjoyable read, Stephen, thanks.

On point 3, I’ve been banging on for weeks – before the series started, after Perth, after Adelaide – about the absence of Shami being the biggest non-story of the summer. The result may not have changed if he were playing but I reckon it would have made things way more interesting (also if Bumrah played out the SCG test). Every time Bumrah broke his back to have Australia on the ropes, Siraj, Rana (newbie) and Deep (newbie) would let the initiative slip away. But seriously, can we build one of these fast bowling factories that Australia has somewhere in India?! Incredible quality and depth. Which is a good segway to point 8. I haven’t seen Australia ever struggle to get 4-5 top tier pace bowlers on the park at once. It’s nuts.

On point 10, this is also something I’ve said previously. This is a very good Australian Test team. But since when did beating a transitioning India team at home become the high watermark of greatness? Feel like a lot of Australian fans and media are getting carried away after getting their hands on the BGT for the first time in 10 years.

Firstly, I am absolutely gobsmacked by the banner headline. The bookies have Australia as raging favourites to win this Test!

The BGT series will finish tomorrow – on day 3. No matter the result, Indian fans should be happy with their team’s effort and endeavour and feel some optimism for the future as they navigate through a phase of transition not seen in Indian cricket since around 2011 – 2012.

This series India has blooded 7 players with less than 10 games experience. India is carrying two faded stars in the batting line up. One being the captain who was “rested” (read dropped) for the final match. India dished out a belting in Perth and were on the receiving end of one in Adelaide, made enough of a game of it in Brisbane to make it hard for Australia to win with the help of the rain, in Melbourne India narrowly missed a draw after getting done on a day 5 pitch by equal measures of good bowling and poor decision making. India are kind of in the fight at the SCG but in a match when they needed everything to go right, every false shot to draw an edge, every DRS call to go their way, the worst possible thing happened: India has finally broken Bumrah, the man carrying the weight of the entire team that has single handedly kept India in this series. His presence might not have been enough to defend what’s looking like a modest total but he sure would have made it interesting.

Some positives for India. From the small sample size, there is enough raw talent in Akash Deep to develop into a fine pace bowler. He’s bowled better than his figures suggest. Pant has copped some flak but the kid oozes talent. He’ll likely finish the series with more runs than his Australian counterpart while playing a much tougher role as part of rescue acts. Hopefully he can add another gear to his batting, a slower gear, and help India grind out some runs and not throw his wicket away. Jaiswal has been hot and cold but finishes the series as India’s highest run scorer. Opening in Australia is tough especially when facing one the best pace bowling line ups this country has assembled plus a bloke from the bench that would be a walk up start to any team in the world. Jaiswal’s work at the MCG was the highlight for me but the needless run out cost him a chance to get his name on the honour board. KL Rahul looks to have matured and may have done enough to stick around for the near term. Not a bad thing to keep some experience in the batting line up. Reddy can bat, but maybe not as good as his numbers this series suggest. Jury is still out on his bowling. Sundar looks like a fairly tidy lower order batsman. Impossible to assess his spin bowling in a series where the pitches have resigned spin bowlers to spectators aside from day 5 at the MCG.

Lots of work to do though. Gill keeps wasting his starts. His dismissals at the SCG were woeful. And India needs to get some top tier game time into other young players like Padikkal, Sudharsan, Jurel and Easwaran. It won’t happen but it would be brilliant if they can get some country experience before the England tour this year.

Might need to agree to disagree on the strength of this India team versus previous teams to tour – highly subjective and hard to compare teams across the years. Agree though that pace in Australia is key to winning. Our 2018/19 team (when Australia was missing Smith and Warner) was strong in all areas and had Bumrah, Shami (currently injured) and late career I Sharma. These three played all the Tests that series. That level of quality and stability is what India is missing now. We are a team in transition. During this series, India’s XI has featured seven players with fewer than 10 Tests: Devdutt Padikkal, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, and Dhruv Jurel. Five of these guys are bowlers (four of them fast bowlers) and the stats show how much Australia has taken these inexperienced bowlers to the cleaners (and to a lesser extent Siraj) while struggling against Bumrah. Yashasvi Jaiswal misses this list, with a modest 15 games under his belt. That level of inexperience, constantly changing starting line ups and carrying two ageing stars does not sound like a strong a stable team needed for success in Australia. I can’t recall the last time the Indian team was in such a state of flux, not to mention a new coach and 37 year old captain struggling so badly he was “rested” for the last Test. Nobody’s fault but India’s and Australia can only play what’s in front of them. And this Australian team, especially its fast bowling quality and bench strength is such that even a strong Indian team would still loose.

On the W/L ratio, you are right, over a 15 year period Australia just pips India (1.723 v 1.702). But over the past 10 years I have India leading with 2.185 and Australia second with 1.928. All stats from CricInfo’s StatsGuru. I think during Kohli’s captaincy and either side of that (maybe a 5 – 7 year stretch) India’s W/L ratio might have been even higher. Whatever the exact figures, we are struggling now after a period of success and the next WTC cycle will see us finish mid-table.

I’m going to add some balance here from an Indian perspective.

First point is culture / attitude. I do agree with the overall premise that India could benefit from “chilling out” a bit. The pressure on the Indian team has no comparison in world sport. None. Expectations are we win everything everywhere. Ridiculously unfair and unrealistic. I think we need a coach that will bring some humour and light heartedness to team culture. The talent and brains are there to succeed. We just need to put less pressure on ourselves and accept we are going to lose. And do so with a smile and move on. I love Kohli. he is an absolute statesman of the sport. But his career is dotted with face palm moments like his shoulder change on Konstans. Hopefully a more relaxed attitude will see less of these indiscretions and us play better. I love how New Zealand go about it. They just beat us 3 – zip at home and celebrated with minimal fanfare. Compare that with the self-generated hype of the Aussie media frothing at the mouth at finally wrestling back the BGT after 10 years at home against one of the weakest Indian teams of the past 20 years.

The author then brings up a common misconception of Indian cricket underachievement. Let’s focus on Tests for a second. India has the best W/L ratio of any team over the past 5, 10 and possibly 15 years. In recent times we’ve done things Australia hasn’t – won in Sri Lanka, won in Bangladesh, beat the Windies at home. And won here, twice. How did Australia fare in India the past few tours? Our most recent tour of England yielded a similar result to the last Ashes – a 2 – all draw. While England were saved by rain against us, Australia benefited from it when they were last in England. We also drew our most recent series in South Africa. India has made and lost two WTC finals and in my view we will struggle to ever win one. It’s played in England and we will most likely always play against one of the SENA nations. The flaws of the WTC are well documented. The lopsided fixturing, the one off final in “neutral” England. I’m sure India would love to win it, but bilaterals retain primacy in the longest format.

On the shorter formats, we have won the ODI WC once, the T20 twice and Champions Trophy once. Not as good as Australia has done but far from horrible. I see India collecting a lot more trophies in the shorter formats over the next decade. We dominated about 98% of the last ODI WC and pretty much all of the last T20 WC. We have some exciting young talent coming through and could legitimately field two competitive teams in these international tournaments. Hopefully the younger blokes know how to get the job done at the big dance.

It’s easy to take pot shots at touring teams that get done in Australia. It’s a bloody tough place to win. Almost impossible. Every little thing that goes wrong gets amplified by the media. It’s happened to plenty of other visiting teams and it will happen again. And for an Indian team in transition carrying two walking wicket veterans and a threadbare inexperienced pace bowling line up beyond Bumrah, we are holding up pretty well so far. If Australia wants the BGT, let’s hope India makes them earn it.

The CA / Cummins media hype machine is in full swing. You’d think Australia just won a Test match in Mumbai to secure the BGT against an all-time Indian team featuring peak Kohli, Pujara, Rahane, Ashwin, Jadeja, Shami and Bumrah. Not win a series at home against one of the weakest Indian sides to tour these shores in the past 20 years. Meanwhile Tom Latham is kicking back in his yard with an Emerson’s in one hand while throwing tennis balls for his dog thinking what all the fuss is about.

Lot of comparison here about Team A beating Team B, and Team B beating Team C, and Team C beating Team A in this generation and other generations. All very confusing and fun. But the record shows a series loss in India, a drawn series here against the Windies, a drawn series in England (where rain saved Australia from a probable series loss). Oddly enough people say very little about the series victory in Pakistan which I consider to be Cummins’ highest achievement as Test captain.

Cummins’ results are those of a good a good captain of a very good team. But great? That is a long way off.

Thanks for the comment, BG. Perhaps my point wasn’t clear that our experienced players have been on a decline for a while, especially Kohli and Sharma, and shouldn’t be in the best XI for India in the first place. Which makes our squad weaker as we are carrying them. The issue isn’t that they haven’t delivered (they haven’t done so for ages); the issue is that they are still playing. In fairness, Ashwin has only bowled in one innings. He bowled with control and intelligence on a pitch that offered spinners nothing. He had the second best economy rate of all Indian bowlers in Adelaide and was unlucky not to dismiss Head. But he made the right selfless call to retire. Pant needs to adapt his game to suit Indian’s transition. His audacious batting worked well when the entire team was firing but now he needs to play smarter and longer. He has the ability to do so. Siraj has performed to expectation. He is no Shami. He is no late career I Sharma and Yadav. And I reckon Deep will overtake him in the bowling pecking order very soon. Jadeja has done well with the bat and ok with the ball. Spinners have been bystanders this series until day 5 at the MCG. As for Rohit and Kohli… if selection was based on merit, they would have been dropped a while back.

Ravi, you absolute beauty! A true genius with the ball in hand. India’s incredible dominance at home over the past 12 years owes more to you than anyone else.

I love that you’ve always been a pure Test match player at heart – a true bastion of the format, much like another modern Indian great, Virat Kohli.

To think you’re one of only four players in history to achieve both 400 wickets (at 24.00) and 3,500 runs (at 25.75) in Tests is mind-blowing. That’s rarefied air.

You’re undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced, and Indian fans will miss you.

I think India is just very short of options everywhere. The XI for the Brissy test is pretty good. Only changes I would have made are Sundar in place of Jadeja (possible) and Padikkal or Jurel in place of Sharma (not possible).

Deep has bowled well so far in Brissy without much luck. I read somewhere he induced more false shots than Bumrah in Australia’s innings.

Cummins has led a strong group of players, including himself, Smith, Starc, Lyon, Hazlewood, and a late career resurgent Usman Khawaja. While the team is undoubtedly very good, it falls short of true greatness.

Take the WTC Final against India in “neutral” England – arguably one of the more hollow trophies in Australian cricket history. This comes after Australia, not always under Cummins’ leadership, lost four consecutive series to India. The ODI World Cup win, on the other hand, was an exceptional achievement – a day where everything worked for Australia.

However, there are gaps in this team’s Test credentials. A drawn Ashes series in England (with a helping hand from the weather), a drawn series in Sri Lanka, and a drawn home series against the West Indies do not reflect the dominance of a truly great team.

Interestingly, perhaps the most impressive accomplishment under Cummins’ captaincy was the Test series victory in Pakistan. In my view, this was more significant than lifting the WTC trophy.
India, for its part, hasn’t fared much better – but also not much worse. India collected the T20 World Cup and until the recent thrashing by New Zealand, maintained an impeccable home record stretching over 12 years. Yet, India also drew its last series in England (with rain saving the hosts from a 3-2 loss) and managed a 1-1 draw in a short series in South Africa. Few Indian fans celebrated those as successes; instead, they were largely viewed as missed opportunities.

When comparing the recent achievements of Australia and India, the differences are marginal. Neither side has done enough to claim a definitive edge in greatness. And other teams, like New Zealand and England, have also enjoyed varying degrees of success across formats in the same period.

India is currently navigating a difficult transitional phase. Despite the victory in Perth, it would be premature to assume otherwise. Australia should win the upcoming BGT on home soil against this transitioning Indian side. But even if they do, it won’t elevate this Australian team to the status of greatness.

Superb, Anth. Really enjoyed that.

I was born in India and moved to Australia in the 80s. My first memory of watching India play in Australia was on TV – a low-scoring nail-biter one-dayer at the MCG between India and a very strong West Indies side. India narrowly got over the line. I can’t even recall the exact year, but it must have been the early to mid-90s.

The 1999/00 series was my first live taste of Indian cricket. I was in my first year of uni and sat with the Indian crowd at the MCG. My (Indian) mate and I made a sign that read: “CHEATS – India plays with 20 men. Ten plus TENdulkar.” Feeling bold, we ran down the steps in Bay 13 holding the sign aloft. It didn’t go well. We were pelted with abuse and bottles. My friend had his Oakleys knocked off his face and smashed into two pieces. When we returned to the safety of the Indian crowd, my older brother, a man of few words, gave me the biggest dressing down of my life and warned me never to pull a stunt like that again.

It was one-way traffic for Australia on that tour, but I still vividly remember the moment Sachin raised his bat during that game.

The 2003/04 series was fascinating. I was working as an intern at an accounting firm at the time. During lunch breaks, a group of us would gather in the break room to watch the Adelaide Test unfold. As the only Indian fan in a room full of 20-something year old Aussie blokes, I felt pretty uncomfortable. Some comments were made – disparaging at best, with more than a few carrying racial undertones. My brother, who was at the game with his mates (they called themselves the Swami Army), recounted how they had chicken bones and racial slurs hurled at them. But amidst all this, in the background, Dravid was doing what he does best.

Fast forward to today, and this week I’m heading to Adelaide with a group of mates – all Aussie fans. I’ll be cheering loudly for India, enjoying a few too many pints, and soaking in the atmosphere at the stunning Adelaide Oval. And I’ll be doing all this confident that I will be welcomed at the ground.

This isn’t a dig at Aussie cricket fans. It’s simply an observation of how much the cricket experience has improved for Indian fans here over the years – and it’s so much better now.

30 odd comments here but am I the only one picking up that this is just limp another attempt by The Roar editors to stoke imaginary flames and make the tourists look bad for something they didn’t do?

Firstly, the article cherry picks quotes from another article in an Indian paper, which does not include a single quote from an Indian player. Nowhere in that Indian article does it suggest the Indian players were mocking Konstas directly or his batting ability. It sounded like they were just having a laugh during a knock-about 50 over practice game.

Secondly, the Indian article praises Konstas in several ways (confident, effective risk taker) but also criticises his aesthetics, then goes on to say it’s not about looking beautiful at the top level.

Sheesh, what a sensitive bunch if this is what the Aussie media get worked up about!

As an Indian supporter I’d love for this to be true. Cummins is probably better. He’s played longer and their stats, for the most part, are identical.

Setting aside where he ranks amongst all time fast bowlers at this stage of this career, what I will say is that there is no more exhilarating sight in world cricket than Bumrah running / ambling in at full flight. I love that he is always attacking the stumps, has can get the ball to whizz past a batsmen’s throat, he has a searing yorker that Ollie Pope and YJB can attest to and the most deceptive slow ball in world cricket.

The criticism of KL has been justified based purely on his raw numbers. However, in recent years, batting in India has been very tough. This has lowered the bowling averages of spin bowlers like Yadav, Ashwin, Jadeja and Patel, while also deflating the batting averages of a lot of our batsmen, KL included. Love some stats to back this up; I’m just making this call on intuition.

No doubt KL is skillful, but perhaps the problem has been temperament. Indian fans can only hope that his gritty knocks at Perth are a sign of things to come and with some luck he mimics the much maligned Ishant Sharma and carves out a successful end to his career as KL Rahul 2.0.

Thanks MO. That is a fair question. But I’d also say the Indian top order has a lot of struggles in this WTC cycle. Our lower order has manufactured many bail outs! And with Sharma coming back, the top 4 doesn’t get much stronger.

We are a long way from those days of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman v Hayden, Ponting and Waugh!

I can tell you how some of us felt (me, family and some mates). We knew the 36 was not a true representation of how bad we were or how good Australia were. We knew it was an aberration. A freak innings where everything went right for one team and wrong for the other. We had to sit here and remain humble while many smug Australian fans were gloating and predicting a lot of one way traffic.

A bit of balance goes a long way. Same here too. Australia has a strong team. And playing at home against an Indian team that is going through a significant transition they should really still win it from here.

Adding to that there are other examples of teams coming back after losing the first test of a series. The most recent Ashes saw Australia win the first 2 games only to see England storm home and win 2 out of the next 3 (Australia were lucky to escape with the only draw). More recently, England won the first test against Pakistan only to get rolled in the next 2 Tests. There must be countless more.

Looking ahead I think there is more upside for Australia than India. India played out of their skin, I don’t think Bumrah and Siraj could have had more productive games. Young Jaiswal… can’t expect him to score a century every game, and ditto for the ageing Kohli. For this Indian fan I’d like to see incremental improvements in our younger players and they learn from this series and come back next time to Australia better prepared. I still think Australia should be red hot favourites to win the next 4 games playing against what I regard as the weakest Indian team to tour since 2011/12. Some parallels between this team and that team in terms of experience. In 2011/12 we also had a mix of young (Ashwin, Yadav, Kohli) and old (Sachin, Dravid, Z Khan, Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman) players with very few in their prime.

On the point about Cummins talking about this group being potentially a “generational team”, I don’t get the basis for making such a claim. I get he won the WTC Final against India in “neutral” England but there are lots of holes in this team’s test CV – (fortunate) drawn Ashes in England, consecutive BGT losses to India (home and away), drawn series against Lanka in Lanka, drawn series against the Windies in Australia. These aren’t the results of a “generational” team and he’s delusional if he thinks beating an Indian team in transition in Australia will change that. I’m not saying that this Australian team isn’t a very good team (see the victory against Pakistan in Pakistan as a highlight which is more impressive than winning the WTC Final), I’m just saying it’s well short of “generational”.

With all the well documented issues facing the Indian team this time around surely we need to be realistic on what to expect and use this as a series to give some younger players 10 innings of experience in Australia. With some luck a few of them come good and are better placed to have another crack at the BGT next time we tour here. In saying that, need to maintain some balance and have some old heads around, which we do (Rohit once he return, Kohli, Ashwin, Jadeja, Bumrah). But KL Rahul should not be one of them, he has had plenty of chances. He’s played around 50 Tests and averages in the low 30s overall and in Australia. Better just to give a younger player a run.

From an Indian fan’s perspective, this is a huge setback. Shami is an absolute workhorse. He may not be a matchwinner like Bumrah, but he’ll keep the pressure on at his end and make it easier for Bumrah to work his magic. With Ashwin and Jadeja playing like they are on the last stretch of their wonderful careers, it’s also a big loss not having Yadav available who drifts and turns the ball really well and may have been a handful on Australian pitches. At least we have a reasonable option in Sundar to fill in.

Not sure the solution for the fast bowling department. Just a lack of quality IMO. It’s now Bumrah, Siraj and Deep. See out Bumrah and there will be plenty of opportunities for easy runs. Not sure who jumps on the pace merry go round for the 5 match series. Could try Reddy as a medium-fast all rounder. He might nab a couple or more likely get carted around the park.

I think “some” is an understatement. In cricketing circles (what’s published in the media, anyway), Kohli is renowned for his unwavering support for Test cricket, a format he has said is still the best and purest form of cricket. I’m confident there will be more (if not most) players for India that prioritise Test cricket. The players earn more than enough from IPL, sponsorships, etc to not have to sacrifice Test cricket.

Incredible. Probably a reflection of how good the pitches were in the past 2 BGT series in Australia. Save for rain, we would have also got results in both Sydney tests (one was a draw as there was no play on day 5 and the other was a draw as India clung on after overs were lost due to rain during the match).

What are your thoughts on the most recent Ashes in England? A simple scoreboard analysis of the 5 tests makes it also look like a very even series.

Enjoyed this Tsat, thanks. Nice to finally have an Indian pace bowler with an array of weaponry in his arsenal that we can speak of so glowingly. Hopefully he’ll inspire a new generation of quality quicks that can keep us competitive overseas.

Possibly. Or perhaps the simpler and correct explanation is that Denness got it wrong and the right verdict was eventually reached. But I suspect if we debated this for another 10 posts back and forth we’d find ourselves in disagreement. So with that, I was merely stating a fact that SRT was not found guilty of ball tampering.

You might not like the umpire’s decision, but Sachin was guilty of not informing the umpires before cleaning the ball and was not found guilty of ball tampering. His one-match ban was overturned and his record remains clean.