India - Australia 2013 Test Series

1st Test - Chennai - 22/26 Feb
2nd Test - Hyderabad - 02/06 Mar
3rd Test - Mohali - 14/18 Mar
4th Test - Delhi - 22/26 Mar

Indian Squad for the first two matches

MS Dhoni
captain/keeper

Age: 31 years 218 days
Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium

Ravichandran Ashwin
Age: 26 years 146 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Shikhar Dhawan
Age: 27 years 67 days
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Ashok Dinda
Age: 28 years 322 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium-fast

Harbhajan Singh
Age: 32 years 222 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Ravindra Jadeja
Age: 24 years 66 days
Playing role: Allrounder
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox

Virat Kohli
Age: 24 years 97 days
Playing role: Middle-order batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium

Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Age: 23 years 5 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium

Pragyan Ojha
Age: 26 years 158 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox

Cheteshwar Pujara
Age: 25 years 16 days
Playing role: Batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Legbreak

Ajinkya Rahane
Age: 24 years 250 days
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium

Virender Sehwag
Age: 34 years 113 days
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Ishant Sharma
Age: 24 years 161 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

Sachin Tendulkar
Age: 39 years 292 days
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Murali Vijay
Age: 28 years 315 days
Playing role: Opening batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Australian Squad



Michael Clarke
captain

Age: 31 years 308 days
Playing role: Middle-order batsman
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox

Shane Watson
vice-captain

Age: 31 years 232 days
Playing role: Allrounder
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

Ashton Agar
Age: 19 years 113 days
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox

Jackson Bird
Age: 26 years 55 days
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

Ed Cowan
Age: 30 years 233 days
Playing role: Opening batsman
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Legbreak

Xavier Doherty
Age: 30 years 74 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox

Moises Henriques
Age: 26 years 3 days
Playing role: Allrounder
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

Phillip Hughes
Age: 24 years 66 days
Playing role: Opening batsman
Batting: Left-hand bat

Mitchell Johnson
Age: 31 years 94 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Left-arm fast

Usman Khawaja
Age: 26 years 48 days
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium

Nathan Lyon
Age: 25 years 76 days
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

Glenn Maxwell
Age: 24 years 113 days
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

James Pattinson
Age: 22 years 277 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

Peter Siddle
Age: 28 years 71 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

Steven Smith
Age: 23 years 247 days
Playing role: Allrounder
Batting: Right-hand bat
Bowling: Legbreak googly

Mitchell Starc
Age: 23 years 5 days
Playing role: Bowler
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Left-arm fast-medium

Matthew Wade
wicketkeeper

Age: 25 years 40 days
Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Right-arm medium

David Warner
Age: 26 years 100 days
Playing role: Opening batsman
Batting: Left-hand bat
Bowling: Legbreak

test match @ Chepauk= rain, LHS=RHS

vAyyA jamessu. Well observed. Februaryla koodavA? April-la dhAn vekkaNum pOlayE. (Actually, England should be played in Chennai in April. But then our northie based cold weather wimps will also collapse)

I think it wont rain on Friday. Appdiye irundhaalum it wont be continuese.

Aus adhukkulla team announce pannittaanga. nammaaluga vaayave thorakka maattraanunga.

moobwag, nallathu nadantha seri

wtf no Ojha, IC Veep :bow: with 4 lefties in top 6 can't see Isshaaant buying a wicket in this series.

Kandaen Kandaen!! whatya sight/sound of The willow :bow:

met some of the old timers who were busy introducing their grandkids to nitty gritties of test cricket
these peeps are visitng Chepauk from its samiyana days :-)

some nuggets

-Sach was surprisingly responding to crowd in the field.
-pudhu mappillai Pujara was relieved of his short leg duties.
-Sehwag ought to check into nethralaya, he is blind as a bat, fat and ugly.
-Mulli Vijay was mostly booed and a naamam maama in the front row almost did a somersault when he got cleaned up(should be a Mukundan family member)
-Pujara hardly played a cover drive, someone quipped he got the ugliest stance for an Indian player(romba mukiyam, must be Cheeka's relative pushing his agenda)
-by 3.30pm a consensus was reached that Sach always changed his stance whenever he played @ Chepauk (couldn't find any change still nodded my head fearing a staunch rebuttal)
-Sach was most troubled by Moises, hardly played a shot across.
-Pujara dismissal was bizarre thought he wasn't ready and moved away.
-misguided youths jump-started their motor mouths as soon as Kohls walked into bat, drooling over those cover drives of Pup and on-drives against Siddle. wished a Sachinist punched their faces, pudhu India and their taste :-(
-attempts to keep the crowd engaged were a big meh
-OZ bowlers hardly tested Kohls offside play and were hellbent on dishing out legside pies which he accepted gleefully.
-nervy time whenever Pup came onto bowl against Sach.
-Pup was clearly off the boil as a skipper, treading into Captain fool's territory of defensive play and inexplicable bowling changes.
OZ missed a left arm spinner more so after Panesar recent exploits against India.

If Sach goes out early can see India folding up for ~250.

Wiz - captian fool and Indian pup will score big tomm. ellAm fixing saar

Harby vERA 20 runku mEla adichuttu ground0ai suththi oru victory run pOga pORAn.

Jaddu also score big yA

Pujara, Vijay, Sachin will be the failures tomm and/or in second innings

Harby will do well in second innings - will take atleast 2 wickets

Great innings by SRT and Kohli. Wow! that's unbelievable and amazing innings from Dhoni considering he has to bat with lower order and they didn't give much support. That's my man!. I thought India might be on par with Australian score, but not by this much. The pace at which he scored especially the last 100 runs. He has put us in a comfortable and winning position.

Chennai is a great place for those biggys. For CSK captain, it is a double-whammy, we need not ask more.

V_S be careful of what you wish for, Seenu maama is already scheming to call off SA tour to save his fostering :-|
really wish Doherty does a Panesar and OZ go on to win the series 2-1.

some pics from sat's play

Thanks Wizzy for the wonderful pictures. I hope you are having a nice time at Chepauk. Chennai ground gives a sense of warmth.

Well Done India. Great team effort!

Insofar as we ever had a golden era in cricket, it just got over. Say it started November 2000, with a Yuvraj Singh blitz and a Zaheer Khan yorker in Nairobi, and ran up until M S DhoniÃÔ Fred Astairish bat twirl at the Wankhede in April 2011. We werenÃÕ kings when ever have we been? but we had class, we were contenders, we were somebody.

The kings were Australia. We beat them at home three times, and twice came close in their house. We won our first Test series in England in 21 years, in West Indies in 35 years, in New Zealand in 33 years and won, at last, Test matches in South Africa. We won in Pakistan for the first time, both formats. We won a World Twenty20, and a World Cup, and got to the final of another. At home we lost only seven Tests out of 52; and in all conditions, against all opponents, won 48 to 27 lost.

The first-person plural is not used to convey partisanship but affection for a set of players who became a part of our lives, in whom a nation recognized their own increasing aspirations and, sometimes, their best selves. Like a good national integration project, they converged from everywhere (though not from every strata): from the south Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman; from the north Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir; from the west Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan; and they were led with most success, improbably, from the east (Sourav Ganguly) and the heartland (Dhoni) with a little collaboration from overseas (John Wright and Gary Kirsten).

They were old and young, cussed and carefree, short and tall, bald and hirsute, consumers of orange juice or buffalo milk or vodka, and could greet or abuse you in about eight languages. If you lined them up two seamers, two spinners, a keeper and seven batsmen they made a XII more strong and exciting than probably any other in Indian history across formats. Cumulatively they played about 1,200 Tests and 3,000 one-dayers, so the mirage of intimacy felt reasonable for most cricket watchers.

One by one, they began dropping out. Srinath went first, back in 2003, after spearheading the attack in his own grumbling, honest-toil manner. In 2008, the man with whom he shared a wedding mandap, Kumble, retired on an impulse after injuring a finger on his favourite ground, Feroz Shah Kotla. In the following match, at Nagpur, the Ganguly soap opera finished with a near- hundred, a golden duck and a series win over Australia. As last season ended in unsurpassed misery, Dravid left after his Dickensian tale of two countries: three heroic centuries in England, but bowled six times for an average of 24 in Australia.

Of those left standing, Tendulkar looked preoccupied, Sehwag flaccid, Laxman middle-aged, Dhoni jaded. Yuvraj was diagnosed with cancer. Harbhajan was not even in the squad. It was unmistakable: with 0-8, the era was shattered to smithereens. Other parts of this book will doubtless do the autopsy. This is a praise burial.

The era has no obvious name. Though it spanned the 2000s, naming rights for the decade could hardly go to India. Call it, if you will, the 281 era. VVS LaxmanÃÔ innings came at the top of the Ganguly-Wright partnership, and the Kolkata victory it engineered was so grand and textured that every subsequent success felt like a homage. The innings itself wasnÃÕ just the virtuoso performance in modern Indian cricket, it was also the most moving representation of its potential: fight, beauty, patience. To submerge oneself into that day (or days), that Test, that fortnight, was to make a discovery that felt somehow profound and fresh: we can play!

A decade on, to watch India fall apart in England and Australia was to confront the sinking suspicion that, no, maybe we cannot play anymore. Dhoni and his band-aided bunch attempted Test cricket from memory, as though searching for a language they no longer spoke. Two Indias took the pitch: the one they thought they could still be, and the one they had become. It was age, yes; it was also era. The Indian way of looking at cricket had changed. The attention of administrators, players, commentators and spectators had shifted elsewhere. The hard graft and hard knocks of Test cricket were like nightmarish 5 a.m. cold showers haunting the silk-robed on Jacuzzi evenings.

The generation of 281 had worked hard on being hard. Young domestic cricketers were pointed to the morning upon morning that Tendulkar and Kumble, 20,000 runs and 800 wickets under their belt, put in at the Middle Income Group in Mumbai and the National Cricket Academy facilities in Bangalore. As a team they played through a period of tumultuous change. They learnt to contend with bleep tests, news channels, ÅÎental disintegration and Greg Chappell.

For reporters, observing that bunch offered oddly illuminating moments. At LordÃÔ in 2002, Ganguly was interviewed by a venerable magazine editor. More unimpressed with the British press than they were with him, he answered every question with a single word or sentence. The magazine carried the conversation verbatim. And it was, actually, one of the more revealing interviews by an Indian captain.

Ganguly had the humour, abrasiveness and angularities which could shelter the more sober ambitions of others. Earlier in that summer of 2002, in the West Indies, a Bajan journalist asked him if the great Sachin Tendulkar was scared of fast bowling (Tendulkar had failed in four successive innings). GangulyÃÔ reply in its entirety, accompanied by the Ganguly smile that either charmed or annoyed its recipient, was: źouÃ×e got guts, man, youÃ×e got guts. You couldnÃÕ imagine another Indian putting it that way.

But, surprisingly, Dravid, the yin to GangulyÃÔ yang, once almost did. This was two years further on, during the memorable 2004 tour of Pakistan. The team had grown in confidence and achievement, and in Lahore Dravid with Mohammad Kaif made a superb floodlit chase to level the one-day series. Asked straightforwardly by a Pakistani journalist if the match was rigged, his response was equally straightforward: Å´omebody please get this guy out of the room.

This was another reason why we cherished that generation. It rescued us from the basest insult to sport, match-fixing. The voluminous CBI report had been made public shortly after the 2000 ICC Knockout Trophy in Nairobi, where the ÅÏew India had their first outing. To wade through its muck was to throw yourself doubly behind the promise of a fresh beginning. LaxmanÃÔ 281 itself began its journey on the same day as another Laxman, Bangaru of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was exposed in a famous sting, accepting a bribe for considering national defence contracts.

As this goes to press, five domestic cricketers have been banned for spot- fixing negotiations or ÅÃragging about shady IPL deals; indeed, every facet of Indian life is under a cloud of corruption. One feels a gratitude to the men who kept cricket honest. Kumble refuses to share the studio with a popular TV pundit tainted in the original match-fixing scam and you want to cheer.

Eras end, and better ones do not always begin. David Rudder wrote his brilliant song ųally Round the West Indies at a time, 1988, when the first signs of vulnerability in that extraordinary dynasty were beginning to show. Though every bit the rallying call its name suggests, beneath even the most soaring notes, the most rousing lines When the Toussaints go, donÃÕ you know, the Dessalines come? there runs a firefighterÃÔ anticipation of impending loss.

In the tributes that poured in after DravidÃÔ retirement, the lament was not merely for a departing great. Ÿhen this honourable man called it a day, wrote Mukul Kesavan, ÅÎiddle-aged fans across the subcontinent shivered: they felt a goose walk over Test cricketÃÔ grave. DravidÃÔ former team-mate at Kent, Ed Smith, concurred. Ūt is not an exaggeration to say that a whole strand of the game a rich vein that runs through the gameÃÔ poetic heart departs the scene with IndiaÃÔ greatest ever No. 3.

These anxieties resurfaced when Laxman retired: we mourn the immemorial rhythm of all those played and unplayed innings which, though sometimes quick and often urgent, never felt hurried or strained. When Tendulkar goes, everybody will know they have gotten just a little older.

ŵhe elegiac note . . . belongs to cricket, Mike Marqusee demonstrates sharply in Anyone But England. ŧrom nearly the beginning, people have said the game is not what it used to be.

IndiaÃÔ golden era was turmeric compared to the West Indian or the Australian, and, who knows, to the one around the corner. Yet for the generations who found in it pleasure and nourishment, the question is not if or when, but simply: now what?

http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-article/281-era/42810

PLUM YOU SHOULD READ this.

Moobwag should just call it quits,Mulli getting a test 100/Jadoo picking wickets just doesn't sit right
for an Indian bat Che looks so inept against spin still whtya conversion rate for a test noob . punting on Captain fool promoting himself up the order and get another 100 to 'silence' his critics, 2 cheers for CSK benefit series, if it wasn't for Oz cement mafioso would have started his bankruptcy filings

Quotes from presentation "Really happy about it," says Cheteshwar Pujara, the Man of the Match. "There was a bit of pressure on me. I just got married, and my wife was worried I should perform

unlike any other Indian cricketers, Dhawan's form has gone upwards after his marriage
easily the best debut knock in the last 10 years, his game is lot like Philip Hughes who struggles when
it is straight but seems to have greatly improved his cover driving, was killing anything pitched in his half
if he plays it smart he can eek out a career like ATG by marring off his sisters or strategically injuring himself and get Mukundan/Rahane to do the dirty work in overseas conditions. also about time Mukundan started concentrating on competing with his cousin on ASS senior season 5.

Yes, marvelous innings by Shikhar Dhawan and excellent support by M Vijay I would also attribute to some poor bowling and poor field placements by Oz. Highlights of day 3 here.

Great win at last. We should also give credit to Clarke and Australians for not dragging the last session to steal a draw like normally how Ponting does.

we were so close to seein Dhoni vaayila mannu moment only for Jaddu to spoil all the fun
with players contracts up for a review won't be surprised Ash is 'rested' and Weed gets to play @Kotla.

V_S, its not in OZ genes to play for a draw, you can blame them for many things but they never played ugly.
Eng could have choked India for a draw with Mr. Malar was at the helm.

Wizy,

I agree to some extent, but I cannot forget this nightmare of a test match when Ponting and Bucknor won in a very ugly fashion when we were eying for a comfortable draw. The worst test match I have ever seen in my life. The scars won't heal.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/291352.html

Disastrous result for Indian Cricket. Valorises the cunning Dhoni-mAmA combine. They now get a blank cheque to promote CsK, its players and their bank balance.

kalikAlam - undesering ppl get all the desserts - modhalla Ponting, apRam Flower-England, now Dhoni.

nallavan eppavum cricketla jeyikka mAttAn pOla

Disastrous result for Indian Cricket. Valorises the cunning Dhoni-mAmA combine. They now get a blank cheque to promote CsK, its players and their bank balance.

kalikAlam - undesering ppl get all the desserts - modhalla Ponting, apRam Flower-England, now Dhoni.

nallavan eppavum cricketla jeyikka mAttAn pOla

plum wrote:Disastrous result for Indian Cricket. Valorises the cunning Dhoni-mAmA combine.

Details please.