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Don't you love it when things are both easier and more affordable, like when the rain washes your car for you, or like when you save up to 10% by bundling your renter's and auto-insurance with the U.S.A.A, bundle with the U.S.A.A. and start saving. Get a quote today. Hello everyone, and welcome to the cricket podcast where we are going to be discussing the fourth board of Gavaska Trophy test between Australia and India. It looked like it was going to peter out into a draw until the collapse to end, all collapses, collapsed India's hopes, collapsed o'clock. We'll also probably talk a little bit about South Africa being Pakistan in an absolute cracker there, and a full 25-minute review of different permutations for World Test Championship qualification will follow up later in the podcast. I'm Jack Kope. I'm joined by Max O'Brown. How you doing, Max? Good. Thank you. I'm hoping you've got all the permutations because I've not got them written down, so that's on you that bit. I think the permutation situation is getting easier. Ross tried to do them, and the students were exploded. I was going to say heroically failed, but there definitely wasn't anything heroic about his attempts. He failed. Google recently put out a new thing saying that they'd managed to improve their quantum computing chip, but it was only on this really specific task that quantum chips would be perfectly designed to do. Is that what the task was, the permutations of the World Test Championship final? I tell you, it would have been a good task. It would have been a good task to go through. Look, we're going to talk about some cricket. It was a pretty good test at the MCG, and we'll do that first, and we'll talk about South Africa, Pakistan later, which I sneakily enjoyed more, I think, and maybe we'll get into some reasons for that. Well, not that the battle of the MCG is you've named it on the YouTube banner. It was bad per se. I like a test match where all the results are possible and mayhem's happening. I think that's a bit more of that, got a bit more of that in the South Africa one. And it helped that the venue month to the South Africa test was 11 in the morning and not 6am. It just was a bonus. Just from a sleep cycle perspective is nice. Before we get to all of that, though, just a shout out to manscaped.com, use the co-cricut pod for 20% off plus free shipping, there's still time, I think, to buy gifts for Christmas if you forgot. So why don't you retrospectively sort out the man in your life or yourself? Did you buy yourself a Christmas gift this year, Max? I sort of did, actually. I bought myself a new Christmas jumper. Yeah. Well, that's not very good. What you could do. Yeah. Neither sat. They're both terrible gifts for oneself. What would be good, though, is if you headed over to manscaped.com, had a look through all the various hair grooming products, and you can group basically any hair with manscaped tools and purchase something there. So once more, manscaped.com, use the co-cricut pod for 20% off plus free shipping. Well, of course, there was no need for me to buy manscaped, suffer myself, Jack, as I already own it. And it's such good quality that it's still working. That is true. It's probably three years. I think, I would say three years, maybe two and a half since the partnership begun, and I still have my original products, and I think most of the products that I received are now at least 1.0 higher in terms of technical innovation. So you're looking at a better version of something that's lasting a long time. Who quality stuff? Manscaped.com, use the co-cricut pod for 20% off plus free shipping max. Tell us what happened at the G, as they say. The G. Well, it was a test at the G that was enjoyed by a record number of people in Australia, first off. Five days, 80,000 capacity every day, stunning for test cricket in Australia, really nice to see. Big crowds, awesome stuff. And it was a game that was full of subplots. You got Nathan McSweeney being cruelly axed, and Sam Constas being brought in for his debut on a Boxing Day test. You had Steve Smith on the back of the century looking to revitalise his series and kick on. Ashwin retiring, the first game in the post-Ashwin era for India, and also Shubman Gill, his axing from the side and Rohit Sharma moving back up the order. Whether that was something that we like from an energy perspective or not, I'm sure we'll get to that bit later on. But it was Sam Constas, who was the first man to resolve a subplot of sorts. And boy, did he get the Boxing Day test off to a flyer after playing and missing at five of the first six deliveries? He decided he was going to ramp Jasper at Bummer, failed to do that twice. Everyone was laughing and thought how jolly it was. And then he tried again and took Bummer for two sixes and a four, and everyone got really angry, Coley tried to fight him. There was mayhem. People were screaming at each other. Meanwhile, he was jing up the crowd, making his way to a 50 off as many balls and a pretty exciting start to his career. More quietly, it's been Kawaj has scored a 50 and got things going. Manas Lavashain was back in form and Australia were piling on the runs. And it was looking pretty dicey for India, but again, Bummer came back, got things back on track for India before a late salvo from Pat Cummins, who so often does it. So Australia, 474, a fairly sizable first innings from Australia, having won the toss and opted to bat. And in response, it was looking a little dicey for India, from their point of view, after Jyswell's 82, things fell in a heap a bit, Scott Bolin chipping in with three wickets until NKR, the new man on the block, good series so far, and he really kicked on 114, bringing India almost back into contention. It was still a bit of a deficit, but after the return of Bummer and his destruction of Australia as we've seen so often in this series, it looked like they were going to have some runs that they could actually chase in the fourth innings with Australia ailing at 156 for eight. But then Nathan Lyon scored 41 or 55, which doesn't normally happen. And a 50-odd partnership with Scott Bolin to round things off, which kind of took India out of contention. They were batting for the draw on the final day. And as no wickets fell in the second session, it looked all for the world, Jack, that they were going to do it. And then stupid, stupid, stupid, that wasn't the time that Senator Glasgow actually said that about Richard Pant that might have been more apt because he held out to Travis Head. Travis Head did something with his fingers and annoyed a few people. And then the collapse of Thorne happened, as you put it earlier. And it was what I wouldn't say comfortable, but it was a margin of victory for Australia at the end. But I'm going to ask you the question, first of all, Jack, were Australia a little bit lucky to win this test? I think they probably were. It's not often you take seven wickets in the session, especially when the other team know they literally all they need to do is not lose wickets. And when the teams are fairly comparable in quality, England v Ireland, with the ball going all over the place on day one at Lord's, maybe you think seven wickets could fall there? I don't know whether India covered themselves in glory, and that isn't to say necessarily that Australia didn't bow well, but at tea was pretty long odds, I think, of an Australian victory to the point, really, where if you go back and there's some quite funny social media posts of people already declaring it one or there are some hot takes still floating around from people who made them at tea saying 168 to win or something like that, India should go for this. It's about a run a ball, seven wickets in hand, Washington Sundar batting nine. There's a chance India should, India are the most likely team to win this match, and then they lose actually fairly comfortably what with about 10 overs to go, something like that. It takes a little bit of luck, and then you can throw in a few other controversial moments, Joyce Wall, and did he not hit it moment where he clearly did hit it? I mean, I don't think there's only dispute about that, but the the Snico suggested that he didn't, luckily the umpire used his eyes and gave the out. You don't see very many wickets to the kind of ball that Richard Plant got himself out to, in not really any format of cricket or any level of cricket, to be honest. People say don't this shit gets wicked, but actually mainly shit gets hit for four or six. It's notable. It's notable when it happens, even in village cricket, when someone's out to a half tracker, people laugh and they're like, that's hilarious because it is notable how unusual it is for someone to be out to that poor equality ball. So yeah, I think Australia probably were lucky. Well, there's another aspect to it, of course, which was Joyce Wall dropping three catches, Siraj putting one down as well from a court and ball the day before. There were a few examples in that innings where India could have actually wrapped that up for a much less than they did and been looking at winning this game. I would say the counterpoint to that, whilst I think Australia were lucky, and not just in the session after T, like you say, there was a couple of drop catches and so on. I don't think India were ever that close to winning. I know that the betting markets, I think at one point, did have them as, or did have India as the most likely, and India win as the most likely outcome at some point on day four before, I guess, coming Scott going and Lyon managed to score some runs. So what would that, this would be 91 to six. That was a still a de facto 200 run lead with four wickets in hand. That's not a, so at that point, that was Cummins and LaBishane batting together. Cummins is a decent bat, LaBishane was in and is a decent bat. I don't think that India were really ahead of the game there. I think at that point, I would have thought Australia narrow win was the most likely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think so. I don't think what happened was very likely. Australia batted for another 50 overs from that point and added, you know, they didn't score very quickly. They scored under three and over, I think, but I don't think anyone saw the matting that that volume of runs over that period of time, but I think even at India's most dominant moment in this game, 91 for six of the second is, I still thought Australia were probably the likely winner, albeit it was close. And actually, you know, points on day five, India were the most likely of the two teams to win the game, but not for very long, I don't think, I think Australia mainly played better cricket in this match. For about as long as the ball was in the way from Richard Pence bat out to Mitchell Marsh on the boundary, I think. Well, you know, arguably much, much earlier in the day before the first sort of cluster of wickets fell, Australia were not favourites to win. I mean, I think, I think about 10 overs into the innings, India weren't really going anywhere, but they'd already used up what the new ball basically, two good spells of bowling, they hadn't even lost row hit Sharma at this point. I think at that point, I looked like quite a lot of quite a stretch to see an Australian victory. Anyway, yeah, look, there's some, there's some stuff to talk about. Where do we want to go first? What do you want to talk at first? We can start at the beginning. Constas? Why not? Let's do chronology. There's a lot to get through. So I think structure, but time feels like it provides the easiest structure for this particular conversation. So let's go there. What do you think of Constas? I thought it was, I mean, I was watching this on, it was Christmas day night for us when this was all kicking off. So I was watching this on my phone in the middle of a family game of something or other and commentating live to my dad about what was going on, because it was a scene. The first attempts of the reverse ramp, which failed twice and everyone laughing. It was an interesting way to announce yourself on the scene, but once he connected with the first one, it was quite impressive. You could really see how much it had rattled. Pretty much, even Bumra, like, Bromo had got to a point where he'd forgotten that all he needed to do was actually just bowl the same way he had done to everyone in the series and he would have got him out probably reasonably quickly, very quickly forgot that the first over, he bowled at him was five times where he beat the bat out of six deliveries. And then, yeah, just one connection with that ramp shot set, cats amongst pigeons, and they all lost the plot a bit, and it was quite funny to watch, to be honest, but I was impressed with the calmness with which he went about it after everything was threatening. I wouldn't say it kicked off, you know, it was all a bit pathetic, argy-bargy, but he fed off it and he took the attack to that India side and it was an impressive way to announce yourself. It was different. It was very buzzball, but I'm all for it. It didn't go so well the second time round, so much, you know, we'll see how he goes from there, but it was fun and we like fun, carnage, chaos. Oh, it definitely got up the Indian team as well. Coley was, you know, obviously, and genuinely pissed off, yeah, genuinely pissed off, kind of bizarre behaviour as well, and I'm sure we'll do the Coley row hit, will they, won't they retire, should they shouldn't they retire, conversation later, but it, you know, Coley's busy in the field, he's loud in the field, he's quite aggressive in the field. Even by his standards, that was a mad thing to do to funny. Yeah, well, it was funny. He's winning crosses into the physical, isn't it, where it becomes questionable, questionable. It's right at the beginning of a test match. What are you saying? It's not, it's not an unprecedented scenario that has caused him to kind of lose the loss. I mean, they were really like 30 for none. Exactly, this is what I'm saying. Sometimes in cricket, something happens and your mind goes. Coley will have played in lots of matches where the other team were 30 for none. He will have played lots of matches where someone on the other team did something a little bit weird. It wasn't even 30 for none, you know, chasing a score of 150 on a Bunsen or something like that where the game was, was up for grabs and there was high attention. It was just day one, nobody knows if this guy can battle or not. I mean, he could have been, we still don't really know whether he can battle or not. That might have been his total contribution to test cricket, that's 60 or 65, but that could be it. He might not ever do anything again. In fact, probably the chances are that he will have a middle in career where he averages something like 33 and plays about 20 tests. That is the most likely outcome for this guy. Now he could go on and play a thousand tests and score a Brazilian runs or he could play two more tests and we never hear from again, there's a range of outcomes here, but most likely this guy is going to come in and this is going to be his contribution. Weird, really weird for Coley, who has seen a lot of cricket played in a lot of games. Weird. Weird. Exactly the word that came to my head thinking about this beforehand, if someone said, how would you describe Coley's reaction? It is weird and it's weird in the same way that Tim Waltz described the Republicans as being weird in the failed election campaign of the Democrats earlier in the year. It felt like that kind of, you can't find another word for it rather than just weird. Well, I think it probably tells you more about where Coley is mentally than anything else. Like I don't think even amped up aggressive Coley from five years ago, does anything lightly? He pretty says some things. Yeah. He might even go over and say those things. I don't think he runs down the wicket and barges him, like it was a really odd thing to do. I thought from a cricketing executive it was quite an interesting plan from Constance. I think it was two of them were three most expensive overs and test cricket came in that little passage of play, so it was, in a way, an interesting solution to quite a big problem and nobody in the world can put play boomer at the moment, like his head and shoulders above any other bowler got to his 200 wickets, his average is below 20. He's, you know, it's a formidable player that you're up against across all across those 200 wickets. Nobody really has ever figured out boomer from an orthodox point of view. So it says, why not try something different? Yeah. It, it, I like, I liked it. You're as likely to have success playing him lying on your back than you are standing up and trying to hit him down the ground and I saw people being like, Oh, this is silly. Like this is, he's gone way too far here. I was like, well, the last guy, McSweeney, he stood there and tried to take it and he got and just no rants in time. Yeah. I was, it's obviously, it's obviously high risk and maybe higher, higher risk from the point of view of perception, right? Because if you go and reverse ramp in your first test and you mess it up and you get out immediately, you look like a tool and everyone laughs at you. But from, like you say, from a cricket perspective, from, you know, from an outcome perspective, if he does that, what is the actual difference of him standing there and, you know, nibbling at one outside off, getting caught on the slips like everyone else and walking off. It's, it's exactly the, the same. And I mean, in hindsight, yeah, it worked well and it did something different and Bummer had to react to it. And actually he didn't deal with it very well in the, in the follow up. He didn't know where to bowl. And he started trying to bowl full outside off stumped and bolts and half volleys and he ramped that for six as well. So it was, it, I mean, honestly, good degree second time round. It didn't work. Maybe you should have ramped him. Honestly, they, Bummer's first wicked in the, in the first innings was in the 44th over. At that point, in the bearing in mind the where the two batting lineups for these, these nations are and where the relative strength of the bowling is, I mean, obviously Bummer is the best bowler in this series, but the, the rest of the Indian bowling attack is miles behind Australia's worst bowler. There's, there is a golf at that point, Australia have done most of the damage that they needed to do already for the test match, and I know that, yeah, there's, there's herbs and flows and we'll get into that. And there's fightbacks and it's, it's not, it goes all the way to the end, but seeing off Bummer, having the score at 153 or 154 for one at one stage puts Australia in, in, in a position that India are really, really unlikely to ever be able to fight back from. And, and that is actually what happened. Even though India played very well, I would say, sort of from about that point, the, the, the 150 runs and, and Kostas is bravery, I guess has, has already done so much to damage the Indian course and help the Australians that probably it's the, the actual turning point for the test. Um, yeah. And I don't think India dealt with it well. Don't think they captained it well. I don't, I think they got overly emotional. Um, I don't think they bold very well, I don't think any of them bold very well in, in that opening spell. And you juxtaposed that with how well Bummer, bold in the second innings. I mean, that's about as well as anyone's ever bold. I think, um, he bold, the, the overs he bold to, I mean, he got, he did get a Kostas out, but there was a few overs he bold before he did in, in the second innings. A lot of it to Usman Kewaju and Kewaju was missing the ball by, you know, six inches of foot, every single delivery, he just could not hit, he could not hit the cricket ball. Um, and it was the same for Kostas, who was, who was, who wasn't eventually bold. Um, that was nowhere to be seen in the first innings and, and probably that's, that's at least in part because of the pressure that Kostas managed to put them under. Um. It's here I discover great deals on top brand workout gear, like high quality bikes, which might lead to another discovery. Oh, oh, getting back in the saddle isn't always comfortable. Good news is Sierra has massage guns. Ah, and shape wipes too. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. Steve Smith, he's probably the next thing, isn't he, if we're, if we're doing time. Um, he got 140 max is Steve Smith back. Well, two hundreds and two games. I think the, the signs are that, that maybe just, just maybe Steve Smith is, is back. It was a bit scratchy first time round. Um, I think for a bit, a bit less scratchy this time, but I mean, I, there's, there's obvious, when you want Steve Smith back, it always looks scratchy for half of it. And you see, you sit there wondering how he is so good, but he is, he is, he is inevitable. And it's, um, that, it was getting to a point, wasn't it, where people were actually starting to question whether Steve Smith was starting to, to lose it. I mean, he's 35 coming on 36 and it's, you know, it's that time in, time in Kritter's careers, where things do start to tail off and go over the edge, but a bit more left in him by, by the looks of things because it's, you know, it's, you're still dealing with a quality attack. I mean, you're right to say that the drop off from Burma is obscene and it makes that into your attack less potent than Australia, but I think, you know, Saraj is still a top quality bowler when he isn't, you know, losing his mind as well. And, um, it's, uh, it's, it's, it does happen a lot, it does happen a lot, but you know, they've struggled throughout this series, I think Australia with, with the bat at times. And part of that has been Smith and Labashain being in trouble, which is possibly because the two openers haven't been doing their job, but I think you saw a bit more of Steve Smith once the openers have done their job in, in this test, and rather than Steve Smith and Labashain de facto opening the batting and having a bit of trouble. Yeah, I think there's definitely that is, is definitely true. Um, I think, I think it was bizarre that Smith decided to go and open the batting. Mmm. Well, I mean, after a first year, he came to the career and so on. At first, you came to the series, it started to look like maybe he should go back and have another guy. Um, but I, I, I think it, I mean, obviously it suits him there and it, and it does help him if he comes in when the score is a little bit higher. I mean, he, he still is, I mean, he, he can't do what he used to be able to do. And I think that's, that's probably fair. He's 35 and two thirds like that. That is, that's the inevitable decline of, of a, an old cricketer. But there are some things that he can still do, like he used to be able to do. And coming in when the bull's 45, oversold boomers into his third spell or deep into his second spell and, uh, the field writing is kind of a little bit back. He can still do that. Um, and he does that probably as well as anyone in, in the world at the moment. I was looking at his numbers. I mean, obviously they are, they are going down. He's still going to end 2024 with an average of 35 and that's not awful. Um, 42 last year, 58th year before, 53 in 2021, 18 in 2020. But that was a, a COVID affected year. It's, it's, uh, it's not averaging 65. Some of the years before that, 70, he was 74 in 2019, 32, the year four. Was that when they came to England and he just destroyed everyone. And then 24, like, so going back in time from 17 to 2014, 76, 71, 73, 81, there is, he's not that player, but the numbers I read out a minute ago, 35, 42, for 58, they're still pretty good. They still probably keep your place in the team. Yeah, like a handy number four. And what we have effectively saw was a handy number four, who's extremely good at grinding people into the dirt, come in in a scenario where grinding was the old game of the game and pulling it off. Uh, so it is Steve Smith back. No, I probably wouldn't say that Steve Smith is back to 2017 vintage Steve Smith. But if Australia can work scenarios where they get him in in that situation more regularly, then he doesn't have to be as good. Doesn't have to be as extreme as 150 for two either. Does it can just, you know, 80 for two would be a start. Yeah, yeah, no, exactly. Like it's, it's, it's, he's got a little bit, there's, there's a little bit of room there, but, um, yeah, I, I was impressed with Steve Smith as I often am. Anyway, that meant Max, as we're going through this sort of blow by blow now, um, Australia, they get their way up to four, seven, four tail wags, doesn't it? In, um, in the first innings, a little bit, because they, they do drop to three hundred for six at one point and then add another hundred runs. Um, I don't know, like, I think, I think Pat Cummins has got like a little bit of a quirk in his batting stats and that he seems to be worse at number eight. Um, but I suspect that that's like one of those, one of those volume things. Like if he batted his entire career at number eight, I think he has the same average as he does now having batted some of his career at number nine. Um, yeah, I think probably he's just failed at a, um, unluckily high number of times and succeeded at nine and a luckily high number of times. And therefore we have this perception that maybe he isn't good enough to bat eight, but clearly Pat Cummins is good enough to bat eight and it shouldn't really be a surprise. Yeah, I mean, again, I think a man coming in at three hundred for six who's good at batting and glad 49, like it's, it's, um, I mean, I'd probably put cut Pat Cummins around maybe Chris Wokes, maybe slightly less good than Chris Wokes at batting. But I mean, yeah, that's, that's number eight territory comfortably. I'd have him. Yeah. I'd have been probably the bracket below that. Yeah. But just 17 in test cricket. And I think that was surprisingly low. That doesn't do him. Yeah, absolute justice. I would say that's a man who should average 20. Um, but here, maybe there are reasons for that, that maybe he just isn't actually as good as he appears to be. Maybe that is actually a week. But he, I think coming in at three hundred for six, even with a second new ball around. Yeah. I think I'm backing Pat Cummins to add a few runs. That's not right. So four, seven, four, um, and then India max. Where do you want, what do you want to talk about with India? Do you want to do row here and Coley? We do row here and Coley. Yeah. I mean, gyro's will gets run. So you always gets runs. That's, that's what gyro's does. Um, row here and Coley don't, and they don't really add on in the second innings. Is it, is it time, is it time to terminate row here and Coley? Is it tight? Yeah. Time for, time for row here to go here. I, I, so you asked me this question before. And my first thing that came to my head was, um, yeah, I mean, row hits nearly 38. I think he can probably, uh, probably twinkle off into the sunset with his, uh, World Cup, but from, from this year and, um, and his new, his new baby and chill out. And maybe row, maybe, uh, ever at Coley can soldier on for a couple of years. Cause he's had a bit of a resurgence. And then I went and looked back at their averages in the last few years. And actually, if anything, it should be the other way around. I mean, row hit this year, average 25, basically the year before it was 42, um, 2023. And, and you know, I remember some of those innings he had and it wasn't that long ago where he was opening for India against England and the ball was moving around. And he was sublime in seeing off the new ball and then, and then capitalizing. Um, it was, yeah, it was quite recent. Obviously this year he's, he's tailed off and in particular in this most recent series, he's been diabolical. And the series against New Zealand wasn't much better either, but verico is, verico is averages since, I mean, well, 2020 is a bit harsh because there are only six games that was COVID and the average 19. So maybe that's, you know, we wouldn't think about that one, but yeah. It was 20, 28 in 2021, 26 and a half in 2022, 56 last year. And then back down to 24 and a half this year, like the, the 56 is the outlier. Yeah, in, in those numbers and, you know, obviously that includes that rum or he didn't score a hundred for a thousand days or whatever it was. Ross was, was she was counting with Glee, but there is, there is something in that. And then, you know, you add in kind of like that, the way you went all weird and the, with that constant incident and, you know, I mean, he's playing T 20 cricket and he probably shouldn't be because his numbers never are even worse. And it's, it is something that India need to address because it's as much a question of succession as it is a question of what's there. And I think possibly succession planning is, is where there's really been, been an issue, right? Like, and it happens a lot with international test teams. You kind of, you get comfortable with someone who's dominated their position for how many years, you know, and the more in the case of coding them. I mean, Rohit has been a, a fine, fine test opener for, for many, many years. And you think India, their plan for the future, I mean, Gisels come in. And I guess the other plan was Schubman Gill. And if you think about, I suppose the way someone like England, a team like England have treated who they want to bring in next, they've just, they've given them a lot of rope and Schubman Gill, I don't know if he's had as much, he's had quite a bit of rope, I suppose, but I don't know if he's had as much rope as you could give someone who quite clearly view as the next talent, the next generation. So, I mean, there's, there's a question there around whether they should just stick with that and move on. And I think, you know, Rohit Sharma's captain makes it really difficult. And I think that was possibly a misguided decision in terms of the captaincy. Vericole, again, even more so, I think in terms of not having a, not thinking about who's going to replace Vericole. Because it comes, it comes suddenly, doesn't it? When, when someone who's been that dominant for however many years falls over the precipice and in, in a few, you know, in a year or so, you suddenly go, hang on a minute, this, this position isn't tenable. It, if you haven't been thinking about it early enough, you do suddenly get a bit shocked about what you bring in. I think that's possibly an issue that India have with Vericole in the sense that they've just lost Rahane and Pajara a couple years ago and was thinking about who comes in, you've got a guy like Safras Khan, but here he's better off batting six maybe. And, and you think where, where do India go? So I do sort of feel that Coley will carry on for a little while, because there's not that obvious replacement. The, the one thing I could think of and you could do is just like shove sight at arson in number four, be like, off you go. He's only 23. It would, it would be the, the, the kind of forward looking bold pick, I suppose, from the, from an India selection point of view, he's, he's got a decent first glass record, he's played a few games for India. A, he scored 100 in a warm up against Australia for, for that India A side. He's only played a couple of Ranji games, but done quite well this year. He's had scored, scored hundreds for Surrey in the County Championship. So he's got a kind of a body of work, which suggests that Red Bull cricket, he can do the job. And he's another one of those guys that's very highly regarded from in India, domestic cricket. So if India were being bold, I'd be like 20, 25, new slate. Shouldn't be a girl back in for Rocha. I'm going to be like, look, we're just going to back you. We'll soil what we need to sort out to get you in. And yeah, throw incited arson and make Rishab pant captain, a Jyswell captain. I don't know, but I think it's tight. It's time to move on, man. It's time to move on. It's only holding him back. Also Rohit's just like a cold body in the field these days. I mean, I think Rohit's cooked personally. I think he has had probably more success recently than Coley, but I think looks worse, frankly, at this point in time. I think part of this is actually that the people that they have given opportunities to haven't really hammered down the door, I would say. No, to go through them. Trey Saya, Hanuma for Hari, do you remember him? Like no one's calling for him to come back into the team. De Suri Akumayadav have a couple of goes, not going to do that much. I feel like they threw a shank cushion reasonably recently. And I don't think he did too much. Safras has had his moments, but as you say, I don't think he probably is cut out to batting away from home in Australia at number four. I think that's maybe not something that's in his skill set. Should have been Gil. Now, I think probably has shown the most promise, but equally, I don't think it's, I think he made it easy for them to drop him. 31 tests, the average is 35 and a half, but that's OK. That's not bad. It's easy to drop that guy. I think he's shown the most promise, but equally, it's not. He hasn't absolutely dominated test cricket at any point. He's had innings that way he looked really good. And then he has had time for the Zach Rawlings. There is. I mean, I think it's better. I would rather have Sherman Gil and then a stream version, probably the other one who actually deserves his place in the team at the moment is Kyle Rehal. And I think there is points in his career. People would have expected that Kyle Rehal, how old is he? Let's have a quick look here. 32. He would be absolutely dominant in test cricket at this point in time. Instead, he's played 57 tests, averages 34. And like he is playing well at the moment, and he is a guy who, again, has had tests and has had series where he looks really good. The guy they've come back around because everyone else has failed. Yeah. And so you've got Coley here, average is 31 over the last three years, I think, one run more than Zach Rawlings for people who are counting like me. And I don't know if it's necessarily a selection failing from India or even them being like overly compliant to a legend. I think, actually, a lot of the other options have been tried and have been found wanting. And when you measure up to, you know, you've got player A, who's come in, let's take for ASI, come in, looked very good in certain circumstances, but has major issues with anything that bounces above waist height that mean that he's borderline unviable as a test player. In most countries in the world and probably half the venues in India as well. And then you've got Coley, who at least has shown over 105 matches. It's pretty good. Like, so who do you expect to do better? In the, you know, if you were picking for the, for the next test, who do you expect to do better? Do you expect Coley to do better? Or do you do expect one of these other guys? Sitedas is a guy you thrown in there. Maybe he would outperform them. But I do think there is an argument that that Coley is still the best option. And it's not because necessarily, speaking here, that Coley is at this point in time, a great player. He might not even be above average test cricketer at this point. In fact, probably somewhat below average based on recent numbers. But I'd still kind of expect him to do at least as well as some of these other guys. Then he brings a load of other Coley type stuff to the game, doesn't he? And then let's not forget the emotional angle as well. Like the guy probably captain, the best ever Indian test team, built this team into basically what they are today. I was, I was still saying this is a team of a large Coley hand imprint on it. Um, it's not easy to say we're going to get rid of you for. And I think I've probably made the case here for what would be a relatively marginal pick. Um, right here, I do think there's, I do think it's reasonable to assume that either K or Hall or Schubman girl would do better than him opening the back like I don't really understand that. And then they can move most of the rest of the team up one position and play another bowler. And I think that team looks better. Um, well, I thought they wouldn't do that with that. They just pick, they probably, I guess just bit girl, but I was thinking maybe they just put K or Hall up and I feel around like that. But, um, yeah. So I think, I think probably is time for Robert to call it a day. Coley, I think still has, I wouldn't necessarily say credit in the bank, but I still would say has a case that he could make that he is the best player that they could pick for that position. And so they should pick him until somebody actually takes their opportunity. And that hasn't happened as far as I'm concerned, like the closest we've probably got to it is, it's Saphras and Gil and neither of them. I don't know if I'm happy. I don't know if I look at an India team with Gil batting instead of Coley and say that is objectively, yeah, well, that's the thing, right? That's, that's the whole thing that, well, whether it's succession planning or just what's available, that's, that's the thing, isn't it? It's not just about whether it's time for them to stop. It's whether someone else is ready to, to do a better job. And you might say, you might say, I don't know what Indigenous ambitions are for the next World Test Championship title. Probably they'll play it win on all their matches at home and be there or they're abouts because that is pretty much what happens. This, this cycle, which was a bit of an aberration aside, like probably India win almost all their matches at home over the next two years and are there or they're abouts the next cycle. You could make an argument that they would be better off in the next 10 years if they did cut some ties and play to play to dance. And for example, yeah, there's two different, I mean, there's two different questions on there. There's, there's the question of, should India retire Rohit Sharma, which I think we both agree, the answer is yes. And should India retire at Coley and the answer probably no. But then there's another question, should Verick Coley just be like, I'm going to call it a day because there is an element of, um, quit while you're ahead kind of thing. I think that time has been and gone. Like, um, the, I think there was a point in Coley's career where he would have been close, I think, in a test match cricket to going down as the best player of his generation. And now I think he's probably clearly fourth batting wise behind Smith root and Williamson. I don't, I don't, I think the, the last four years have done enough damage to the reputation that already he goes down. Oh, yeah, I was good at that. It's too extreme that he's dropped out of the Hall of Fame and into the Hall. I did see. But if you've got your Hall of Fame and you've got your Hall of absolute greats of all time, Smith and root and Williamson, definitely Smith. Oh, you know, they're knocking on the door of absolute greats of all time. Coley is merely Hall of Fame. We're still good. We're still good. Yeah. But I mean, I did see a tweet, which it did make me laugh. Well, I mean, I don't know where you call it now, a post on X, but it was, um, my, someone basically just saying my, uh, my lasting memory of Verick Coley is now going to be barging a 19 year old, barbecuing a guy who's on 82. And then immediately snicking off. It's like, you know, it's, it's very, that's, that's extreme recency. But it is kind of a very extreme way of looking at the last four years of Verick Coley, right? That's, yeah, boy, it's, it's a, he is a worthwhile player than he used to be. And if that happens, I'm afraid to say that doesn't detract from how good he was. But if we are looking and still still dominant in one day cricket as well, that's not, well, even in that he had a great 2023, he had a great 2023. But that is a bit of an outlier over the last four years. So I'm, I know you get that a little bit as well with older players. If they fully commit something, which I think you probably did for the World Cup, they, you know, they go all out to hit the gym, face a number of balls they need to in the nets really mentally focus. I can sometimes still drag it back for a little bit of time, but then as soon as that intensity drops off and the, there's not the, you know, the next target around the corner or whatever it is, it, you revert back to what you are, which is an aging athlete at this point in time. And we'll probably see that with, you know, you see that with lots of players, but from an England perspective, we might be seeing that a little bit with Ben Stokes, we might see him be really great in one more Ashes series. And then either side of that and around that struggle because of fitness and other commitments or whatever, we might see that a little bit with Joe Ru and I think you know, we probably should expect to see that. And it's not, it's, it's not a criticism of the person. It's just how age works and how difficult it is to be 35 and dominating a sport that requires unbelievable reflexes is constantly developing and by and large is dominated by people in their athletic prime in their 20s. You're a long way from that, 35, I'm afraid. You're a really long way from it at 38. I need to tell me. So, yeah, there's that. This is Kumar Reddy. He was good. Yeah, I mean, he's been good all series. I've been, it's been really pleasantly surprising, I think, to see, because it's a kind of a role of the dice pick, isn't it? And KAR, like he had a breakout IPL with SunRisers in, in 2024. And yeah, decent first class, not, it's half decent, maybe first-class record. Not really a body of work to speak of. He's been thrown in a little bit at the deep end in terms of an away series in Australia. And he's come in and looks probably the most accomplished of, of all of India's batting lineup bar, maybe Jai Swelen, you know, KAR Rahul has had a decent series as well. But he's pretty much now, you know, a banker on the, on the team sheet in that, in that India batting lineup. And it's, it's been a, yeah, been, been a surprise to see, but he's, he's looked good. He's looked comfortable and it's been, been a great, a great series for him. And I think the 100 was, was well deserved. It's been, I, I, yeah, I suppose coming from, from the way he's been playing. And one of the, one of the bright lights, I suppose, for, for a future of Indian, Indian cricket. So it's, yeah, good, good to see. I'm not, not convinced about his output with the ball so far. I think it's fairly, fairly pedestrian and, and, you know, not particularly threatening. So I don't think we're at a level where you can have a champion, champion all rounder that, that fills in two spots on your roster with them with just the one name. But I think he's good enough to be in there just as a batter on his own right. And if you can send down a few overs to take the heat off and give some of the, the, the India bowl as a rest, then that's still a very useful weapon to have. But I think, yeah, I look at him now as just someone who could play in that India lineup as a, as a middle order batter and, and do it well on the evidence available so far. Obviously it's a, a small sample size, but it's certainly a promising start. I think this isn't, he's an interesting one from an India opponent's point of view. And I think like, obviously this is a great performance. Great hundred gets India sort of back in the game slash, well, I'd say sort of back in the other thing. I thought a hundred run deficit at the end, this is still the worst innings. It's quite a lot. Still not where you want to be. Would mean a lot more, let's say, without Nittish Kumar, Reddy's hundred. I think the interesting thing for India is what they do with him. So he's 21 going on 22. Now he is the sort of person who you could invest in quite heavily and say we're going to pick him or we're going to, yeah, or, or like, we're just going to try and make him a number six. I don't know if he's quite good enough. Where was he batting in this test? Well, yeah, I think he came in as a not so good night watchman. Yeah. So he's seven at the moment. I don't know if he could bat five. Can he maybe move up one position? If he can, then he becomes, from a batting perspective, and from, even if he doesn't bowl that much or he only bowls in certain conditions, he becomes quite, I think, the asset to have. And if you can get him to the level, I don't even know if he's a full-time number seven, to be honest, bear in mind the other options India have, but if they can get him to the level where he is a full-time number seven, average is low 30s, for example, and give him the time and space, therefore, to work on his bowling to get that to at least service of all level. And I think at the moment, if we've been honest, it's quite a way below, like, let's call it what it is. He had to test bowler or collingwood. There's no, yeah, he's much closer to Paul Collingwood than, I don't know, there aren't that many all round, but yeah, Flintoff is a bad example, but let's say Cameron Green. Let's maybe say Cameron Green. Cameron Green is probably an example where, or Jack Callis say, the guy who can take a wicket or two, or a wicket per innings, can average two wickets, two and a half wickets per test. I think that's what you kind of need from a player to be considered an all-rounder. And if his batting can sustain him learning bowling to the level where he can do that, then India can have a hell of a player on their hands. The question is whether they invest in that, and it probably will take a few tests in places where he gets pummeled or in situations where he clearly doesn't have the skills to develop some of those skills, or whether they treat him as like a little bit of a novelty pick, and he plays in England, South Africa, New Zealand and England. His batting is handy down the order, but his bowling really lets the whole side down. I think as good as his batting has been in this series, India really have relied on it in a few situations. I'm sorry, that's a bit of a negative view, particularly after his career-crowding achievement so far. And I expect that he probably will have more in the future, so I don't want to be too down on him, but I don't think he's bringing that much to the team as a complete package because of the bowling at the moment. I mean, it's a bit like a more extreme version of Washington's Sundar, I think, in a way. You're looking at, you know, he's... I'm wishing the Sundar is probably a much more competent bowler than this is QMO already, but I'm still not... I don't think I'm going to pick Washington's Sundar for his bowling, and I don't think I'm going to pick him for his batting, whereas I could see myself picking NKR for his batting. On what I've seen so far? Yeah. Well, I think that's the... India might have to make a call. That's the decision they've got on those two. Yeah. That's the call they have to make. I don't think you can pick both of them because I don't think I either of them. I don't think them combined are a good enough bowler. No. It's what Sam was in my call a luxury player. I mean, yeah, you do then start getting into that decision point of like, "Well, if he's not good enough to actually send down, you know, ten overs and then innings, then just picks off for his car at number seven." So they're... Well, there is certainly an argument for that. I think there is an argument for that, and that's kind of what I'm driving at. But there is a decision that India could make, and I don't think it would necessarily be a wrong one to sacrifice maybe the three to five runs batting average that picking ready over a specialist bat would... To work on a potential asset. Yeah. To work on a player who could end up averaging high thirties in test cricket, mid thirties in test cricket with the bat and mid thirties with the ball. And then you've got somebody who, imagine if they got him to the level of like shardle to curl with the ball. Yeah. Now, I don't think shardle to curl is a great bowler. But if he averaged 30 with the bat. Yes. If he averaged 30 with the bat, then you're looking at a guy who is nailed on to play every single away test for India, pretty much, and to play a decent number of the home tests as well, and to pretty much always give them something. And maybe that's an aspiration, the bowling wise, they can get him to get shardle to curl to come in, coach, ready. They need to make sure you will be the Lord. Because that I think is a Bible cricket, and that's what some people think shardle to curl. You know, some people think shardle to curl is that is nittish ready with the bat and he isn't. They need to somehow combine those two players' skill sets so that you get shardles bowling and ready batting. And then you've got a pretty decent all-rounder, I think, like somebody who you can play a lot. I don't think they're even a little bit better than Sam Curran, to be honest. Anyway, Matt, we've done quite a long time on this. We have. We're due about five breaks. I'll put them in later, I think. So yeah, we've got boomerah. What are you going to say about here? You've just recycled what we've said in the last week about boomerah is just ridiculous, isn't he? Right. He dusted himself down after the constant incident. I mean, he did it within the same innings, didn't need to be honest, came back and took Travis Head and Mitch Marsh, and then he came back and did it all over again. And yeah, he's just, he's a freak. He's ridiculous. How many, how many wiggas has he got in this series now, like 25? Is that right? Just disgusting. Right. What? It's outrageous. Yeah, I am running out of words for boomerah. He got, got over the 200 mark in test cricket, of course, which he's got 30 wickets, 30 wickets. At an average of 12.8. That's a low add. It's obscene. It's obscene. It's just a show that we haven't had more just boomerah in test cricket. But long may it continue because he's got through quite the body of work as well in this series. I mean, there was a fairly big gap, wasn't there, between, was it the most recent one or the test before, because India managed to squeeze in a warm-up game, which you don't see much of anymore. You can tell they're taking it seriously. And the next ones are very tight turnaround as well, isn't it? It's like two days. After a five day, it'll be interesting to see how he holds up, but so far he's got through a lot of work and he's still looking as dangerous and unplayable as he was at the very first poorly bold in this series. And it's just a joy to watch, really, isn't it? Like you said, no one's worked out of play and every time he releases the ball, it's just fun. I think the second innings bowling in this test was about as good as it gets. He hits about as good as it gets, as he hits the level about as good as it gets. So off. So off. So it's not even like I can sit here and specifically say this is the best I've ever seen from a bottle, because it isn't. He has bold that well before. Yeah. But I was watching it. I think he wouldn't tell me, but he had three or four spells like that. Yeah. It's pretty much unstoppable and 31, if you can play three more years, I think he really will go. I mean, he's on greatest of all time trajectory and we were talking about this. I think before this series, we were saying he's only got 170 test wickets, great bowler, but you need to get 300. Oh, he's done like 25% of the work that he needs to do for matching three. He's but he's taking like half the wickets. It's, it's, it's funny kind of those in in test cricket, I think, that you get things like this happen fairly regularly where you get one player who is sort of propping up the entire team. And without Bumra, India are four nil down. Yeah. I mean, you think like the series is a decision that India have been having to make about their third seamen between Akash deep and Nisha, like it's so far off the pace. It's so, it's such a stark difference. And you do get it. Sorry. Nisha. Rana would be terrible. You do, you do get, you do get this quite sort of regularly where one player for a series or for a period of time props up everyone else, but obviously route did it for England. I would say Coley, when India came to England in 2018, no, both those examples, both of them ended up on the losing type team and it looks like Bumra might end up with a losing team for this series as well. But if you take the individual out of those matches, there's not even contests, like England would have been so bad without route in the 2021 year, 2021. India similarly, if Siraj was their best bowler, how bad is this team? It's so bad, but he isn't, Bumra, Bumra is there and they're actually really quite good. So don't lose sight of that, but it's, it is funny to conceptualize. It's one side strain away from disaster. Well, and it's a lot of bowling and they're playing again in about five minutes in Sydney. So I guess it will have to play because of the circumstances, but yeah, it bowled quite a lot in this test. If you can credit in one thing and bat, eh, for one thing, I think if you can give Australia credit for against Bumra, they have made him bow quite a lot of overs after that first test. And even though he's still taking the wickets, he's doing it at a more normal pace, or still like a ridiculous pace, but like, it's not a wicket every two overs or a wicket every three overs, but at least dragging it out. So it's one wicket a spell. Yeah, a test and a half ago, he was averaging nine with the ball, like they've managed to get that to double figures now. Yeah. Um, so limited credit to there. And I suppose, Max, the last thing to do on this test, we have gone quite deep is to discuss, um, the end, um, people were quite bananas about this. No, I think it is great. Like, obviously you get the winning moment, make them lie and appealing, minor flabbergine lying on the floor for some reason, everyone got nuts. Um, and it's incredible because 60 or 1000 people have rocked up to the MCG. Mm. So I was basically a five reticket, it was a good deal, I think. Um, Australians going bananas, Indians pretty disappointed, as you can imagine in the crowd. Um, I think it's a great moment for test cricket. How great is the test batch? Right. It's, let's not shy away from the fact that it was a good test match, right? It went five days. There was drama throughout, you know, we had the, the altercation at the start. There were, um, bits of individual brilliance. We've, you know, covered bummer once again, of course, two good innings from, you should have to be jiced while there was, you know, wait questions about which way the result was going to go right until fairly late on in the test, um, you know, momentum swings to a degree. So, you know, it was high quality, it was a high quality game of cricket and the result was on the line until fairly late in the day. Uh, you can't ask for a lot more than that from a game of cricket, but I think the one thing for me is that you want really all three or all four results to be on the table for it to be like a truly memorable, like, not memorable, but harsh, but, you know, like Hall of Fame, Pantheon, the greatest, one of the greatest tests of all time, which is what has been coming up the Australian camp a bit from the layman and Cummins and, and the like. And that was never really the case was it? I mean, in an India win was fairly fanciful for all, but a very, very short period of time in this test match. So it's not quite, not quite there, but I still think it was a really good game of test match cricket. And the atmosphere added to it, of course, I mean, there's yet that from when you think about the immediate reactions to the, to the game, the size of the crowds and the noise that being made obviously adds to, to that for the people that were there, but taking a step back and looking at it as a game of cricket, really good game of cricket, really enjoyed it. Yeah, one of the greatest of all time. No, but there aren't that many of those. So it's not that much of a, but not that much of a criticism of it as a spectacle to, to say that I don't think I kind of agree with that. I think so as an individual game, and I don't know if we weren't probably going to have that much time to talk about Pakistan, the South Africa, I actually didn't think it was as good a game. I thought that was a better game of cricket, but I think if you look at the context of the game, it is, it is probably a greater moment if that makes sense, and particularly if you're an Australian here. So a lot of the real hype came from Ozzie's, which is sort of understandable. The team have just taken seven wickets against a team that they haven't beaten home or away for 10 years in a series to go to one up. So the boxing they test is broken the record for most people at a test match ever. It's a frenzy, you've, you've overcome Bumra and Coley and Roe here and they're big names that have done a lot of damage and Joel Wilson, and Joel Wilson have done a lot of damage to Australian cricket over the year. So I do think it is a great, great win for Australia. I think it is from a neutral perspective, a great sort of moment. It would be very memorable. I think I think we'll remember this test for a long time, but I don't know if I would have it as an individually speaking, the most awesome test ever. It was a pretty good one with some wider context that definitely made it more interesting as a result. Max, we are going to take a break now. I think that's probably it for BGT. There's obviously another test, but we don't need to preview that. There's a part of me that does want to talk about the Geistler dismissal, but it won't be much other than us being like, it wasn't controversial. It was out. It was out. I do kind of get why Geistler was like, look, it says I wasn't out on the screen, but it doesn't because it says you were out because you can use your eyes and part of technology is also a video. Very clearly you hit it. I don't think it was controversial at all. I think if they made, if they'd made anything other than an out call there, I would have been. That would have. That's a disgrace. Yeah. I think that's fine. That's fine. Max, we're going to take a break. Then we're going to come back. We'll do a little bit on South Africa, be Pakistan, and then we'll wrap up the pod. Welcome back, everyone, to the cricket podcast for the final countdown to the World Test Championship final. The good song, isn't it, Max? Do you reckon they'll be playing that anywhere for New Year? Probably as we speak. Probably, I reckon they might be doing a gig. Yeah. Yeah. I gather Europe when they play live, they both start with an end on the final countdown. Do they have any other songs? They play twice in the middle as well. Not that I know. No. They should just do one hour long version of final countdown. Some riffing in the middle, but a jamming. We've sponsored, by the way, by Manscaped, head over to manscaped.com, use the co-cricut pop or 20% off plus free shipping. You can find a link to that in the show notes if you are lazy or can't type. Max, there was another test match that was going on at the same time, and for World Test Championship, Watchers, an arm we all, World Test Championship, Watchers really. This had a lot of weight on it, so the scenario going into the game is the South Africa needed to win one of their two matches against Pakistan to book the flight to London. In June, to contest that final, Pakistan, they had the opportunity to play the role of spoiler. And the first thing is they didn't really do that. They got 211 all out, not spoiling anything there. South Africa, they get 301, and I think there's an argument that maybe we need to revise the South Africa are terrible at batting thing that we have. These South Africa are actually sort of semi-okay, they just do it in a kind of avant-garde way. Corbin Bock, the man this time, 81 for him, which is pretty good, pretty good. He actually came in. I just envisage him every time he hits a boundary, just screaming, "Bosh." I hope he does. It would be a massive waste if he didn't. I mean, at one point here, South Africa are 213 for eight. It's quite close, and then they end up getting 301, but in amongst all this as well, other South Africans have scored some runs. They just don't seem to ever do it in an orthodox fashion. It's just sort of random guys getting the 70 for the series and then everyone else sort of batting around them. Fine. Whatever. Here's the big news. Second innings. Bhabarazzam, his first 50 of the World Test Championship cycle. So he's got it in. Wow. 50 on the nose. Then he gets out. Job done for him. They get 237, which sets South Africa 148 to book their place in the final. And they set about it by being three for 19 after eight overs. That's not so good, but they recover. They get up to 95, 96 for four. Then Bhabarazzam is out when he wasn't out. It hits his pocket. He walks off the pitch, didn't realize he didn't hit the ball. Maybe didn't know the rules. I don't know. And South Africa have a mini collapsed. Suddenly they're 99 for eight and it's Marco Janssen and Kagiso Roberta at the crease. A very nervy 50 runs from victory, but they don't. I mean, I've watched all of this as I said. It was a very nice time in the UK. They didn't bat like it was a particularly scary scenario at all. Roberta. Roberta, I mean, I don't really know how to describe this 20, but maybe one of 26 playing all the shots, but playing them well, it wasn't like, I think he got off the mark with like a streaky four. And then after that, it was just middle of the bat hammering it to all parts and Janssen at the other end, sort of batting in a more orthodox way. I think he's a good player Marco Janssen. I think I think he's a really, really good player. Like make it, Patuick, it smacks South Africa and the World Test Championship final. What are your thoughts on that? Love it. I love it. It's, I mean, we've seen the same people in the last, last few iterations, so it's nice to have some fresh blood and it's nice for it to be South Africa because they're a, I mean, they're a perennially underrated side, I think. With that bowling attack as well, I mean, namely Keita Roberta, it's, he is elite. He is so good, like, we've been, you know, effusive and praised of, of Bumra. I think Roberta is another one of the guys that we need to just respect in terms of how good he is. The rate at which he takes wickets is nonsense and it's going to be, going to be great to see them there, especially for, you know, a lot was made over the fact that South Africa basically just got purely two test series in the next cycle and that it's a bit of a joke. And you think about the series they had against India to start it all off, which was pretty memorable, turned out, sending the seating to New Zealand didn't make much of a difference because they were focused on the SA 20 and yeah, I mean, the way it's all worked out. Pretty good from South African cricket and they've, I mean, there's a few different faces as well from that series against India, you know, Dean Elgar was retired in this cycle and they've had to deal with that Tristan Stubbs has come in and decided to become a test player, Ryan Rickerton's come in, the bowling attackers refreshed itself a few times, only Roberta and Jansen really are the guys that are still there from that first series. You had an Andre Berger, starting things off, we've had obviously Nork here in and out of the sides. We've used quite a few players as well, it shows you the kind of depth and quality that South Africa have got, mainly in that bowling attack, obviously on the batting side it's more of a throw throw-in-off at the wall until something sticks, but they're a fun side to watch, they play exciting cricket, I'm pleased for them and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Yeah, I think they, I think they probably earned the spot, you'd say, it's not, it's kind of funny because as you say they haven't, they don't play really enough for us to be absolutely sure that they're a great team and that probably has, if you're of the opinion that they aren't a great team then they're not playing and not a lot has probably benefited them because one, one of surprise innings, disproportionately impacts your qualification chances, whereas for the teams that play all the time, India, England and Australia, you need sustained goodness for quite a long period of time to put together the eight or nine wins a year that you need, I mean England, what do they play 17 matches this year? They need to win eight of those, probably maybe nine or ten of those to be hitting the point percentage threshold that they would need. With the, with the over eight penalties they need to be winning about 15. Yeah, and that's, that's really, really hard to do, whereas if you're only playing six matches you only need Bovuma to get 100 and Markham to get two eighties and someone else to get 100. Okay, he's losing it a couple of times. And yeah, you can get four of those wins, like you don't need that much and so, so there's one side of it there, so maybe there is an argument that we don't really know how good they are. But at the same time, I don't think we can dispute the bowling attack, they're really good and generally speaking in test matches, the better your bowling is, the more likely you are to win. The better your batting is, the less likely you are to lose, and so obviously you need those two things together to be in a situation where you're not likely to lose and likely to win. But if you're only going to have one of them and you want to qualify for the World Test Championship title, title, title, decide title match, they call it the title match. I think that would be much better than the final. The title match, then you want to be more like South Africa than you do, I don't know, Sri Lanka's sort of competent batting? No, not really. Is there a mid weight? Maybe you India without New Zealand. Usually, I'd probably say their batting is maybe a little bit better than their bowling all around the world, and for that reason, they struggle to bowl teams out and they do get hammered sometimes with the bat, but when someone does come through with a decent bowling performance, they can be better, but I don't know, maybe there isn't an equivalent to South Africa on the other side at this point in time, but I think it's good. I'm looking forward to seeing them in the final. Do you want to know the permutations, everything else? Yes. This is basically what I'm saying. Australia, they need to win, I think, a test for them to get through. I think if they were to draw in Sydney, I think a draw in either of their matches in Sri Lanka gets them through. So Australia really, really heavy favourites to get through. India, this is what they would need to do. They need to beat Australia and then hope that Australia lose two-nil in Sri Lanka, and then Sri Lanka, they need a draw in the Sydney test and Australia to lose, well, they need to beat Australia twice at home. I don't want to be going to see South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the world is championship finals. No, I'm sorry to Sri Lanka, but that's not what I paid my money for. I think the final that has the two best teams in is probably South Africa vs Australia over the last two years. You can argue it as well as South Africa at all as well. You can say that South Africa haven't had the toughest schedule, I don't think they're hardest to wait for in terms of conditions, it was Bangladesh, which is sort of all right. They haven't had to do like India and Pakistan or something like that, which might have been a bit tougher. They played both of those at home, and I don't think they played Australia, which is also handy. But I think, look at their cricket over the last two years, I think they probably deserve to be there, played 11 matches 1-7. That's good. That is good. Whatever you say about them. That is good. India, for example, played 18 matches 1-9. Not as good. Yeah, that is not as good. So South Africa, and then I think Australia are probably the next best team, aren't they? Played 16, 1-10, and they'd basically be already there except they've had 10 points. So one of their wins, worth of points, docked more or less in penalty points. So let's hope for Australia to be South Africa, I think, for the neutrals. Chaos Max, before we wrap up. The only other thing I had from the Pakistan South Africa game was who had Muhammad Abbas down on the bingo card of returns to the Pakistan-tied and potential saviors. He was the one who did the damage in that South Africa second innings with six, six wickets, just the carousel continues with Pakistan. I am genuinely surprised, Muhammad Abbas. I'm just going to get his numbers up. You're never getting your new prize. About 22. About 23 or something. 22, yeah. I'm genuinely surprised that they haven't picked him more. I know that he might not suit all conditions, and he doesn't necessarily look like... He doesn't necessarily look like what you think of as a guy your average is 22 or 23 in Test Cricket. Yeah. What's the difference really between him and Scott Boland? Not that much. You've got the right players around Abbas. I don't see why he can't be a kind of a workhorse-type figure, a Vernon Philander. Yeah. Scott Boland. I don't know, Matthew Potts for England sometimes. Matthew Holger. I think... Yeah, or late career keemah roach. I don't think it's a good baller. I really think it's bizarre that Pakistan have only managed to play him 26 times and he's 34. It's crazy, isn't it? Especially what he does, he does it all the time in first-class cricket, when he plays in England, when he plays in back sun, he's a good player. Really strange to me that they've wasted his career. Some of the other players, anyway, Max, I think we should probably wrap up now. Good talking to you. Have a good new year. We will see everyone soon in 2025. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Australia claimed one of their greatest ever wins over India in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The MCG was rocking in the fourth Test of the series, and there was a lot to entertain, with Konstas, Bumrah, Cummins, and Smith providing fireworks over the 5 days.
Now it is all over what happens next, should Rohit and Kohli go? Will Australia join South Africa in the World Test Championship Final?
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