Notes from Adelaide

I am writing this piece just as India have worked themselves into a winning position in this first Test match at Adelaide. However anything can happen tomorrow, and if Australia go on to a highly unlikely win, there will be some serious introspection about how Rishabh Pant and the tail batted on day four. The likely scenario is that India will win because of their brilliant bowling unit, and the grit of Cheteshwar Pujara. They will win in spite of some dreadful batting in the first two sessions on day one, and the second session on day four.

Whatever the result of the match, some things caught my eye as I watched parts of the telecast.

1. Isa Tara Guha is a wonderful addition to the commentary team. She has a lovely soft voice, an infectious laugh, and provides the occasional good insight. I look forward to Guha and Warnie doing commentary together - they work well together.
2. Another great addition is Mark Butcher - he has a great sense of humor, is quite forthright, and as the host of Extra Innings he gets the other panelists involved.
3. Talking of commentators, I hope the network guys get rid of Murali Kartik as soon as possible. He seems like a nice guy, but is all at sea when asked a searching question. His favourite line is "I completely agree with Clarkey...". Kartik has no insights, and although he speaks good English, has nothing interesting or original to contribute to the proceedings. He is not as bad as Rajit Fernando, Rameez Raja or Ravi Shastri, but I am grateful for the mute button on my TV remote whenever Murali Kartik opens his mouth. Get rid of Kartik, and if you need an additional Indian voice, get Sanjay Manjarekar.
4. Rohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul have outlived their usefulness as Test Match batsmen on overseas tours. I hope they are given instructions to demonstrate their ability to play long innings in Ranji trophy and released from the Indian team.
5. We need a real coach, so the sooner we get rid of Ravi Shastri, the better off we will be. Let us get in someone like Rahul Dravid - a guy with substance and pedigree. Meanwhile someone needs to do some plain speaking with a few of our players.
1. Someone needs to tell Mohammed Shami that the next time he goes out to bat, we don't want to see him play any attacking shots at all! Show us that you value your wicket! If you hack at a ball and get out, we will drop you.
2. Rishabh Pant should be given a target to play an innings where he must play at least 100 balls, else let us bring in Dinesh Kartik.
3. Ajinkya Rahane's tendency to play the occasional loose shot is letting him and the team down. Once we have a real coach, he should probably tell Rahane to get a hundred to prove that he can play a long innings. Just saying that long innings are good in pre-match interviews is not good enough.

Over to day five at Adelaide.

Kohli and Shastri demonstrate how to lay an egg when the chips are up

Day one of a highly anticipated Test series in Australia. Perhaps the weakest Aussie side in a generation. Perhaps the best Indian Test match bowling unit to tour Australia. A great opportunity to start the series on a good note.

But the Indian team went ahead and laid an egg. Actually a half dozen of them.

It started before the toss. Kohli and Shastri have made a habit of bad team selections at the beginning of overseas Test series, and habits are hard to break. They dropped Rahane for the first two tests in South Africa, and Pujara for the first match in England. Here they had to choose between Hanuma Vihari and Rohit Sharma as the sixth batsman. Common sense pointed to Vihari - a traditional Test match style player, with a good start to his Test career. Rohit Sharma has been tried and discarded several times as a Test batsman. He is a "talented" guy with an unbelievable limited overs record, but a suspect Test temperament.

Kohli and Shastri value aggression and "intent". That is what led to the dropping of Pujara in England earlier this year. So Rohit was the choice. I was not surprised.

And that is how the first egg was laid before the toss.

What was India's best case scenario at Adelaide? Win the toss and bat. Grind the Aussie bowling into the dust on a good batting track! Make them pay the price for dropping Mitch Marsh, the fifth bowler. Kohli won the toss and decided to bat. I was rubbing my hands in glee!

That is when the Indian team proceeded to lay the next 5 eggs.

The less said about K. L. Rahul, the better. I have never been convinced about this guy and have written about him as too loose for Test cricket for a long time. However he made an "aggressive" hundred in the last Test match in a losing cause in England. So he must play. And lay an egg. Which he did in spectacular fashion with a booming drive away from his body to give the Aussies their first wicket.

Murali Vijay was a wonderful Test match opener before Shastri and Kohli started this bullshit talk about intent and aggression. And pedigreed Test match batsmen feared for their place because of lower strike rates. So Vijay has started attacking more, and become loose. He was out to a horrendous shot. Egg number three was laid thus.

Sir Kohli was looking alright for a while, and he was expected to start with a hundred. But the darned Aussies had plans for him. He delivered egg number four with a terrible shot to a full wide delivery.

Before the start of the Test match our vice captain Ajinkya Rahane had declared that his goal was to bat long! His theory is that batting long is the key in Test matches. So he proceeded to make several attempts to throw his wicket away. He had a few close calls against Nathan Lyon, but ultimately laid his egg when he chased a full and wide delivery from Hazlewood. Screw batting long - show intent to please the coach and captain. Egg number five.

Egg number six was interesting because it complemented egg number one. For a while I was worried that egg number one was not an egg at all because Rohit was batting well. However he delivered egg number six and at the same time confirmed egg number one with the worst shot of the day.

Ravi Shastri is the worst thing that has happened to Indian cricket in the last 2 years. Indian cricket needed a foil to captain Kohli, someone who could really challenge him. However we allowed Kohli to fire Kumble and hire Shastri because Sir Kohli needed a cheerleader, not a partner.

India may yet win the Adelaide Test match, but that is not the point. When you play overseas, you have to be able to grind out Test match wins by playing percentage cricket. However they might have frittered away a golden opportunity in the interest of the optics of "intent and aggression" rather than the qualities of persistence and patience.