India v Australia *1st Test* at Chennai

expecting a dead track here with nothing for the seamers. wkts likely to be from batters getting impatient. tempted to lay aus for this match. think they can compete better in the other games.

Also who is this Moses Henriques - is he likely to get a game, and is he any good?

Really looking forward to this series - just trying to get a handle on the balance of the Oz team.

henriques - average lower order batsman, average medium pacer. no threat in either pursuit. unlikely to play though as I expect Aus to play 3 seamers plus lyon & maxwell as an spinning 'all-rounder'. twatto won't bowl. he/clarke/warner the keys if aus are to compete. clarke the only one though who won't mind the slow spinning tracks. others to be all at sea. lay aus or back india for me. yet to decide.

was thinking of laying india big but after knowing that dharmsena and erasmus will be umpiring in first 2 test dropped that idea and will lay draw instead.

thinking bout this match: our old anger therapy thread comes to mind, esp if india bat first.

Australia team for first Test with India: Ed Cowan, David Warner, Phil Hughes, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (captain), Matthew Wade (wicketkeeper), Moises Henriques, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon.

Plenty of batting scope there (ableit inconsistent) - more of a worry as to where 20 wickets are going to come from in India?

people seem to be writing the aussies off,if england can do it.ill be laying india @1.72 series winner.expect 1st test draw.

2 extremely ropey batting line ups on show here although india may get away with it at home cos the aussies have no spinner in the class of swann or panesar nor anyone close to jimmy anderson

yep the prospective top 6 for the summer looks horrific. you can see jimmy and steve finn running amok several times in the series. time and time again in the last couple of years they've been found wanting against the swinging ball

I am also not under-rating Oz in the Ashes.

Since the Sydney defeat in the Ashes Oz have only lost three test matches - twice against the Saffers in competitive series and once against the Kiwis by 7 runs in a low scoring shoot-out. That passage of games includes a 4-0 pasting of India at home. England by contrast have lost seven test matches in the same period.

As Injera notes above India's home 'reputation' pricing could be very interesting here - India behind Oz in the ICC test rankings as well

Roll up roll up, dry pitch folks. Just had a chunky draw lay putting the profit on India's side.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/series-tournament/australia-in-india-2013/top-stories/A-battle-between-Indian-spinners-and-Australian-pacers/articleshow/18600597.cms

ROFL at India picking Bhaji - where does that come from? Plenty of doubts about the India side as well.

no DRS means Draw should be a factor.

would love to see some stats comparing results in DRS games vs results in non DRS games

i definitely think a results is more likely in games with DRS

Conch     20 Feb 13 22:14 
Don't think australia are as bad as all that, expect them to go better than the odds suggest in the ashes. Less convinced in India because of the lack of spin but india wont exactly be full of confidence.

Don't think any of the Indians lack confidence. If anything their problem is the opposite. The trouble is that they no longer care. There's less than 6 weeks until the IPL, and I can imagine plenty of them will have "avoiding injury" as their number-one priority in this series.

Yes, Lix. You (and Conch) are probably right.

Their batsmen (and their bowlers) must be lacking confidence in Tests after all that's happened to them in the last couple of years. What I really meant was that they seem to have rationalized it as a case of Tests therefore being unimportant and just for losers who wish they were playing IPL.

The likes of Sehwag, Kohli and Ashwin don't seem to lack any confidence in the way they play the one-day formats.

Bloody hell! You're right about Kohli! I had clearly fallen into his trap of mistaking gobby confidence for solid achievement.

Recent matches
Bat & Bowl    Team    Opposition    Ground    Match Date    Scorecard
0    India    v England    Dharamsala    27 Jan 2013    ODI # 3329
26    India    v England    Mohali    23 Jan 2013    ODI # 3327
77*    India    v England    Ranchi    19 Jan 2013    ODI # 3322
37    India    v England    Kochi    15 Jan 2013    ODI # 3320
0/9, 15    India    v England    Rajkot    11 Jan 2013    ODI # 3318
7    India    v Pakistan    Delhi    6 Jan 2013    ODI # 3316
6    India    v Pakistan    Kolkata    3 Jan 2013    ODI # 3315
0, 0/21    India    v Pakistan    Chennai    30 Dec 2012    ODI # 3314
27    India    v Pakistan    Ahmedabad    28 Dec 2012    T20I # 298
9, 0/21    India    v Pakistan    Bangalore    25 Dec 2012    T20I # 296

Coming after his Test failures vs England, he's starting to look like the Ravi Bopara of the Himalayas.

and if they fail to actually spin anything as was the case vs England, Inj?

No bet for me, too many variables, though will no doubt be looking to back high and lay low

Not since ITV plc's catastrophic acquisition of Friends Reunited for £130m ten years ago have i seen such a flawed strategy by management. It beggars belief that there are not better players around but there have been some eye catching selections by the Aussie management for this series. The notion that Glenn Maxwell (despite his self proclaimed X factor billing) is a Test cricketer has, for me, the potential to be a triumph of hope over expectation. There is no credible way of arguing that Stephen Smith has a technique that gives him "the tools" to be a Test batsman, however I got side stepped in my analysis and recalled that he is a bowler. It is at this point that my views and those of the Aussie selectors become irreversibly polarised.

This series has the potential to be watershed for Ed Cowan but that is as the selectors see it - not me. He likes the ball coming onto the bat and I think we are all agreed that the classic cocktail of India's "pace attack" and their pitches falls some way short of "the tools required in place for Cowan to excel"

Australia are a much stronger side at home than away and it was some surprise to me that South Africa had to get to the Perth Test courtesy of an unlikely but pleasing innings from FAF to break the spine of Australia's home pursuit of a series win over SA. Nonetheless, Australia were nuggety at home but the haunting melody of battings collapses which beseiged them at Leeds in 2010 and Melbourne in the same year and Newlands a year later rang loud and clear on a number of occasions.

India are not strong and they care little for the 5 day format but they are too strong for Australia. Punting wise there should be some good opportuities.

Henriques batting at seven, Siddle at wight.  Their batting does look horrific, but they are 89/2 yet the draw is still 3/1, surprising, wish I had laid it at 2.75 now, anyone know when it drifted so much?  Before or after kick off?