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As India had a nightmare series and pak having the same down under, i am wondering if combined Ind pak 11 would beat aus in aus
My team:
Azhar Ali
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Sarfaraz
Aswin
Jadeja
Amir
Wahab
Shami
Give your thoughts
My team would be
Azhar
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Sarfaraz
Ashwin
Jadeja
Aamir
Shami
Umesh
1. Pujara in place of Vijay? Vijay was our 2nd highest run scorer after Kohli with an average of 60. On the other hand, Pujara averaged 30 odd.
2. Two spin bowlers are redundant. If 4 bowlers can't take 20 wickets on those roads, 5 can't either. At least make the batting stronger which would be useful in drawing matches.
Vijay
Rahul
Azhar
Kohli (c)
Rahane
Sarfaraz (wk)
Ashwin
Amir
Yadav
Wahab
Shami
This team will compete far far better.
Same team, just Yasir for Yadav. If 3 pacers can't do, 4 won't either; but in AUS, a leggi is must & against that 7 lefti, Ashwin is also must. Yasir is having a tough time, which partially due to the slavery he had to do under Misbah & partially for the the tactics used in AUS; but I back him to do much better under a Captain like Virat.
I think, I have written enough on why Yasir is a flop in ODI under Cuptan Azhar - you can relate that to his Test bowling in AUS with Azhar's boss as Captain. At present, Rahne is going through a rough time, still I'll keep him over Asad, but if Asad can help saving SCG Test, who knows - another century'll cast my vote for him.
Vijay
Rahul
Azhar
Kohli (c)
Rahane
Sarfaraz (wk)
Ashwin
Amir
Yadav
Wahab
Shami
This team will compete far far better.
Same team, just Yasir for Yadav. If 3 pacers can't do, 4 won't either; but in AUS, a leggi is must & against that 7 lefti, Ashwin is also must. Yasir is having a tough time, which partially due to the slavery he had to do under Misbah & partially for the the tactics used in AUS; but I back him to do much better under a Captain like Virat.
I think, I have written enough on why Yasir is a flop in ODI under Cuptan Azhar - you can relate that to his Test bowling in AUS with Azhar's boss as Captain. At present, Rahne is going through a rough time, still I'll keep him over Asad, but if Asad can help saving SCG Test, who knows - another century'll cast my vote for him.
I will never go with just 4 bowlers in Australia unless the wicket is something like what south africa received in Hobart. I would be even more skeptical considering our (Indian) bowling. Last time we managed to get the top and middle order out from one end (Smith was solid as a rock at the other end), but our inability to get their lower order out proved to be the difference as MJ, Harris, Hazelwood and Starc all added valuable runs in each of those tests. We desperately missed the 5th bowler there. Also I'm skeptical of picking 2 spinners on any Australian track barring Sydney. Ideally I would like 3 genuine pacers + 1 seam bowling AR + 1 genuine spinner. My gut feel is that Kohli will definitely play 5 bowlers (most likely Shami+Yadav+Ishant/BK+Pandya+Ash/Jads) unlike Dhoni who always felt he needed more batting strength.
So it has to be either Ash or Yasir. I actually don't buy the leggies are obligatory in Australia argument. Might have been in the past but the Australian pitches have gotten consistently flatter since 2010. Stats indicate that invariably all visiting spinners struggle in Australia and the only visiting spinners with a semi decent record in the recent period has been Vettori and Herath, both of whom are finger spinners. Either way, I won't mind Yasir instead of Ashwin as well as long as he can be accurate and not leak too many runs.
There are no decent seam bowling ARs in Asia. I know Amir has struggled in this series and it was something I expected as well. He is short and more of a conventional swing bowler than a hit the deck bowler. It's difficult to trouble with his height on these roads, he's more Bhuvi like than Wahab or Shami or Yadav. I know he has much more pace than Bhuvi but pace never troubles Australian batsmen as they are grown up facing bowlers of similar pace if not higher. Amir would've had a far greater impact if Pakistan had received wickets similar to what SA received where he could have played a Philander like role. But it's not possible to trouble Australian batsmen with his height on these roads. I have picked him more for his batting as a pace bowling all rounder as he's the best batsman out of all the pacers.
It was a difficult decision to drop Shafiq but I had to sacrifice him for that 5th bowler. I know Rahane has been struggling lately but he is a touch player and he likes pace on the ball. I wouldn't be surprised if Pujara and Rahane's forms reverse if we tour Australia now. Also he enjoys true bounce on the ball and also is more attacking than Shafiq which counts in Australia (he was the one who actually started the assault on MJ at Melbourne post tea before Kohli did). He had a very good series in Aus 2 years back averaging 57 and played 3 or 4 good knocks (not to mention that he copped 1 or 2 rough decisions as well).
The funny thing is that all you need to do is to add a Rabada to the team and suddenly I would pick the combined xi to beat the Aussies quite convincingly. One strike bowler.
I feel like in a lineup of Amir, Shami, Wahab, Jadeja and Ashwin, Wahab
can be a great strike bowler.
Even India, Pak combined team will lose against Aus in Aus.
Neither team has the fast bowlers required to win in these conditions.
Too much of a spray gun. Maybe does better with Jadeja keeping it super tight on the other end and batsmen have to attack him?
Contemporary Pakistani fast bowlers bowl like 1980s Indian fast bowlers, so this "merger" doesn't really benefit India.
I also don't see how this combined team will play better than what Indians played last time in Aus. Batting may get slightly better, but there is no scope of bowling getting better.
Hmm. I'm not sure a combined team can beat OZ in OZ. However, I would play this lineup
Azhar
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Karun
Wridddhiman/Sarfraz(doesn't matter)
Ashwin
Jadeja
Aamir
Ishant.
This lineup might still get thrashed but let's face it. No fast bowler is gonna do exceptionally well in Australia but Aamir and Ishant might offer some control with Aamir's swing and Ishant's bounce. On a flat road, Shami will go for plenty and Wahab is a spray gun who takes wickets off no balls. Utterly useless. Aamir also offers a bit with the bat. This batting g lineup is also capable if piling up huge scores and scoreboard pressure might be the only way to win. It's a 4 man bowling attack so you need atleast two spinners to do the bulk of the bowling and Ash/Jaddu are the best spin duo across formats. Jaddu is accurate and can be handy with a bat and Ash can be useful against their left handers.
This team might actually have a chance if they win all the tosses and bat first.
Wasn't Pakistan's batting lineup better than India's couple of months ago?![]()
It was. But Misbah and Younis are finished now. That changes things quite a lot. The likes of Asad are serviceable batsmen but not truly world class. Only Azhar is I guess and Sami/Babar have been extremely disappointing. Still, ironically batting has been Pakistan's stronger suit for quite some time now. Also during the India/England series, the likes of Rahul and Nair have played outstanding knocks under pressure and Kohli is in the form of his life so I'd say our batting is comfortably better for now.
It was never better and certainly isn't now.